A Second Glance, Book II
by Valkrez
Summary: She chose Mako, but did Korra make the right decision? A parallel-canon story taking place in Book II
1. Chapter 1

_She chose Mako, but did Korra make the right decision?_

 _A parallel-canon story taking place in Book II_

 _I do not own Avatar: Legend of Korra, its universe, or its characters. Nickelodeon does. This is a work of fanfiction._ _This is the second installment of the series, 'A Second Glance'_

* * *

The southern seas felt somehow different to Korra as the three-stacked steamer cruised along through the frigid, glittering night. The starlight which flickered in the midnight was brittle, the draft almost cruel when it whipped against the steel plates of the ship. For the Avatar, there was an indefinite 'something' in the currents they rode from the Republic; a force which was vaguely sinister as it slithered at the edges of her connection to the elements but when she made an attempt to focus on the sensation, it vanished. She finally was left to decide that whatever she felt was nothing but the overactivity of a bored mind, and Korra was fairly bored.

Korra, Mako, Bolin, Asami, and the entire airbending family were making their way to Harbor City in the far south to attend the Glacier Spirits Festival, and from there they would be working their way north again to visit the various Air Temples in some attempt to teach the Avatar more about her connection to 'air'. The Avatar had little-to-no interest in the field-trip, and she had less interest in the boat ride there. She disliked her cabin, having too many vexing memories of the last time she'd been in a cabin on her way south, and so had taken to sleeping with her dear polarbear-dog dog, Naga, on the deck spaces instead.

She had just made herself comfortable in the plush, dank pelt when her boyfriend, Mako, appeared from a hatchway nearby. The two shared a grin as he made himself comfortable beside her and Naga made space by rearranging her shovel-sized paws.

"You're going to get sick if you keep sleeping outside in the cold," he predicted mildly.

Korra scoffed at the firebender. "You don't even know cold, city boy."

He snorted back, linking his arms over the tops of his knees. "Yeah, well," he opened his fist to create a dancing flame in his gloved palm. "Guess not." They both smirked again and he sat up straighter. "Oh, I forgot to tell you about this arrest I made last week. It was intense!" She tilted her head, giving him her attention. Korra liked listening to Mako's arrest stories since his graduation from the police academy a few months ago, even if they were clumsily told. It was about the only time that he would talk on his own, without her pressing him to open up and Mako was at his most endearing when he was excited about something, rare as that was. He raised his hands to gesture with his story as he explained chasing down a Triad truck on his Satobike, making wild motions with his fists and arms to exaggerate how he'd firebent his way into causing the truck to crash in order to end the pursuit.

"So, the door kinda swings open and I walk over and look down and go 'looks like you had some car trouble. Good thing the police are here'," he finished, cocking his angled brow at her.

She laughed at his cheesiness. "Wow, did you have that written down somewhere?"

"Yeah. I have a few others..." he fished into a breast pocket to pull out a folded slip of paper covered in his scrawling. "Hmm... how about this one: 'Looks like you guys should put more 'try' in 'triad'." He grinned at her and she kneaded her brows together, almost sympathetic. His expression twisted sideways and he pointed to another line on his list. "Well, there's this one: 'When you get to jail, tell 'em Mako sent ya'." He looked at her for approval.

"Oooh," she cooed, attempting to be helpful. "I like that last one."

"Cool," he smiled and put the paper away, leaning further into Naga's warmth. "Next time I'll use that. Chief says that I can make detective one day if I keep up the good work. I really feel like I'm meant to be a detective."

She smiled a little wistfully at his enthusiasm, wishing that she could be as excited about her own prospects. "That sounds great..." she sighed and glanced overboard at the inky-black waves. "All I ever do these days is train and train. It's so frustrating how Tenzin acts like I wasn't the one to beat Amon."

Mako reached out an arm to wrap around her shoulder, his voice low and calm. She could smell his astringent aftershave and the leather of his gloves, a familiar 'Mako' bouquet. "Hey, you know that Tenzin's just doing his job to help you be the best Avatar that you can be."

For some reason, his tone irked her. What did he know about having a destiny that other people wouldn't give you the freedom to fulfill? He had support from police chief Beifong, while all she ever had were criticisms from her own mentor. "Yeah, of course you're going to take his side," she muttered and pulled out of his grasp, standing up. Naga shifted as her owner's comfort left her and looked around, perturbed.

"Hey, I'm not taking anyone's side..." he protested from his seat but she was already stalking ahead of him down the deck.

"Whatever, I'm going for a walk," she answered brusquely and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her Water Tribe hood.

The deck was bathed in spots of gentle electric light, giving free footing as she walked fore and mused. Mako didn't know what he was talking about: he didn't know what it was like to work under Tenzin for months and months and still never gain any of his respect. She had saved the city, his father's city, and she had even saved him but did he give her credit as the Avatar? Or as an adult? No. She was sick of it and this trip to the ancient Air Temples just seemed like another of Tenzin's attempts to control her life by dragging her from the rest of the world, again.

She rounded the foredeck and turned to walk down the starboard gangway but halted at the threshold, surprised from her brooding. Asami Sato, heiress to Future Industries and owner of the ship they were currently sailing on, was leaning against the steel bulwark, her black hair kissed by lantern light and her painted eyes on the dark horizon. At Korra's appearance, her gaze pirouetted towards the Water Tribe girl, catching her in the jade-colored pools.

Six months since their breakup and Korra could barely look directly at Asami. She was just as gorgeous to her, if not more so in her sad, quiet way and it tangled Korra's tongue to think of something normal to say to her. The engineer was dressed in her business attire, wrapped up in a stylish overcoat and scarf against the southern cold, and the tip her nose was blushed pink by the wind. Her expression was surprised, obviously not expecting to run face-to-face with someone on the deck this late at night, but perhaps more so because it was Korra. The two hadn't spoken much since their breakup, and during the trip south their interactions on the ship had been brief but polite. For whatever reason however, both women seemed able to tell that there was something on the other's mind and the quiet seclusion which the night offered almost necessitated that one ask the other.

"...Hey," Korra spoke first. She couldn't exactly brush past Asami and to go the other way would be obviously rude, she decided.

"Hey," the engineer answered, twisting some to face her properly. "You're doing your laps."

Korra realized that this walking around the ship at night must have become a habit, if Asami had noticed it. "Yeah, well," she shrugged awkwardly, looking starboard. "Just had to do some thinking."

"This is a pretty good place to think," Asami responded and glanced back at the water as well. "I can understand why people write so many poems at sea."

Korra watched her, curious. It was obvious, to her at least, that Asami had been depressed lately and she had at first thought it may have had something to do with their breakup... a thought which curled her insides grossly. After some consideration, she decided that it probably had more to do with Asami's criminal father but now she was beginning to wonder if that were the whole truth after all. She knew Asami: knew that she had a predator's determination when she realized something which she wanted and she knew that Asami wouldn't falter in the wake of even the most violent threat... so what was she doing mooning at the waves at midnight?

Now that she thought about it, she wasn't even sure why Asami was going south to begin with and she felt a pang of guilt for doing such a poor job of keeping up with the woman who had been her closest friend even before they'd escalated to lovers. Bolin spent more time with Asami now than either her or Mako, and he had been the one to mention to Korra that the heiress was making the trip to Harbor City. They had all simply combined schedules with Tenzin, and even offered to pay for their way, though Asami had refused to accept any compensation. Throughout the arrangement though, Korra and the heiress had never spoken long enough for her to learn what it was Asami was working on in the pole.

The Avatar hesitated and then came to lean on the bulwark near her. "I don't read much poetry," she responded, belatedly.

Asami smirked. "I would have been surprised if you had," she glanced sidelong at Korra, who was wondering if she was being teased.

"So, are you out here writing poems?"

The other woman scoffed. "Hardly. I can't really sleep. I'm worried about this meeting with Iknik Varrick and I keep thinking about this-" she stopped and looked at Korra. "Never mind, it's just business things." She started to move away but Korra straightened.

"No, wait. I want to hear about it." At least now she knew what Asami was doing in the south.

Asami paused, studying her for a moment. "Really?"

"Yeah," she opened her arms out at her sides. "We're friends, right? You can talk to me about business stuff if you want. I mean, I may not follow all of it but... it's okay if I'm interested, right?" That's what Asami had said to her once about engines, at least.

A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and the heiress retook her position at the railing. The sea-wind picked up a tendril of her ebony hair, curling it under her chin and Korra tried to not notice how it framed the woman's pale features in soft black. "Well, it's these airships I designed," she began. "My father's plan was for them to be artillery mounting, like what you saw during the Coup, but I've been re-designing and marketing them as recreational vehicles. The problem is that not many people can afford to buy an aeroplane and those that can don't want to buy from me. I keep feeling like what I should do is go back to my father's plan and sell them as weapons for the military but I..." she trailed, frowning.

"You don't want to hurt anyone," Korra finished for her and Asami hung her head. She knew that Asami wasn't the sort of person to bring harm to anyone if she could help it.

"Is that just stupid of me?" She looked up at Korra, obviously pained over her indecision. "After everything with Hiroshi, no one wants to do business with Future Industries and I'm hemorrhaging money. Making weaponized aeroplanes could save my company and the jobs of all the people working for me, but it would mean I'd become my father. Only, a legal version of him."

"Asami," Korra shifted towards her unconsciously, her brow in a tight, firm line. "You're not your father and there's nothing you could do to be him. Even if you put cannons on an airship you'll be better than him because you'd be doing it for the right reasons."

She cast her a tired, sardonic look. "Making money?"

Korra pulled a face at her. "Keeping your company. But..." she trailed. "I also don't think that you should do something that's going to go against your beliefs. If you don't want to make weapons, why don't you make something that could save lives instead?"

Asami blinked at her. "Stronger defenses..." she straightened, studying the waves beneath them with a narrow frown which Korra recognized as the engineer's 'thinking face'. "I could restructure hulls for impact resistance, some sort of stronger armor without costing maneuverability..." she started to think aloud and then glanced up at Korra, smiling. The expression caused the Avatar's stomach to lift nearly to her throat; Asami was so lovely when she smiled. "I need to go write some things down," she took a step forward and gripped Korra's forearm, giving her a squeeze. "Korra, you're brilliant."

"Hey, I'm the Avatar," she grinned crookedly and for a moment the two paused, gazes meeting softly, and then Asami looked down and took her hand away. The sea breeze seemed cooler in her absence.

"I should go back to my cabin," the engineer explained, pointing in a half-hazard direction and met her eyes again. Korra had a brief sense of deja-vu, remembering being in her sickbed on Airtemple Island and how Asami's tension when she entered the room had been almost palatable. She wasn't sure why this felt so familiar now. "Thanks for listening," Asami added, a bit softer.

Korra cleared her throat. This had been the first real conversation between them since their breakup and it had given her such a pleasant warmth to feel trusted by Asami again. She couldn't even remember what she had been irritated about before. The Water Tribe girl gave her another awkward grin. "Always," she promised.

Asami smiled again, and then turned to walk in the direction of her cabin. Korra watched her for several steps before forcing herself to look out over the water instead but as she stared out at the darkness, she was a little surprised to find herself thinking about poetry after all.

* * *

Asami was over Korra. That's what she had decided when she had agreed to escort the airbender family and Avatar, along with the bending brothers, to the South Pole on her yacht and it was what she continued to assert to herself when she was walking through the Glacier Spirits festival later that week. She was dressed in her cold-weather best; a very chic overcoat hand-tailored on Yutan boulevard and fur-lined boots to keep her cozy in the arctic chill. Her lips were painted perfect 'burberry red, no. 31' and her hair was tucked back on one side by a jade comb piece she'd been gifted by a member of the Raiko family. She was, in short, dressed to the nines and walking as the youngest company president in the modern manufacturer industry. Of course she wasn't still bemoaning an ex lover, and certainly not the Water Tribe girl sharing cotton candy with her ex boyfriend some thirty yards away beneath the bloom light of the festival strings. Not at all.

Asami stood beside a food vendor, surrounded by the festive gaiety of the undulating crowd and distinctly not part of it. She did not fit in this rustic world of simple joys, she knew that, much as she had wanted otherwise. It wasn't only her dress and background which separated her from the mass; it was the simple fact that she could only look at the happy faces around her and see them as little more than porcelain masks. Were they the ones pretending or was it just her?

She cut a sigh and turned from the scene of Korra and Mako as the two moved towards a water-gun game and began to walk down one of the many festival avenues. Brightly colored kiosks called to her from every corner, men and women offering exotic accessories, fried insects on sticks, penny candy, a chance at some seemingly valuable prize at the mere cost of 5 yuan and some luck. The colors and noises blended worthlessly to her as she walked and thought not about the festival at all but about her meeting that day with the infamous and eccentric Varrick. She'd traveled three days and burned through about 500 yuan worth of fuel to make the meeting (she tended to think of everything in terms of her savings, these days) and all the shipping mogul had done to negotiate with her had been to stare intently into her eyes for the count of five awkward seconds.

The moment had been so utterly intrusive and bizarre for her, and in a way she'd been furious. She'd done so much to prepare for a business meeting between equals and he was going to base his entire decision on no more than a staring contest?

'Fine', she'd decided and glowered right back at him. If Varrick was going to make or break her plans for Future Industries with such a silly strategy then she'd play and beat him at his own game. Her gambit had paid off, it seemed, because after a moment he jumped up, grabbed her hand, and said they'd had a deal. As far as first-time negotiations went, it was her oddest and most successful.

The deal itself, however, would be much more harrowing. His assistant, Zhu-li, had dropped a manila folder thick as a novella on her table at dinner and Asami had only taken a half-skim through it to realize she'd have to make her own amendments. She was just considering that it may be time for her to go back to the ship and get to work on those when, for the second time in as many days, an angry Korra stomped her way in front of her, taking both women by surprise.

The Water Tribe girl appeared from between two kiosks, wearing a thunderous little frown which Asami found strangely cute. Both paused and stared at one another, two moths caught in a sudden beam of light, and then Asami slowly smirked, unable to help herself. Korra matched her expression with her typical, cocky side-long grin.

"Hey," the Avatar greeted her.

"Hey."

In unison they both glanced away, then back at one another. "Do you want to get a grill-eel?"

Asami arched a brow. "I'm not sure. What's a grill-eel?"

Korra's mouth pulled sideways as she attempted an explanation. "It's a fish that looks like an eel, fried in gonut batter on a stick."

"That sounds..." she furrowed her brows and then considered that she didn't really feel like writing contracts. "Great."

"Okay, c'mon," Korra shoved her hands in her pockets and twisted to walk down the lane and, wondering if this was going to be a good idea, Asami met her step. For a moment, they didn't speak, but Asami found she was genuinely puzzled. Korra had seemed perfectly happy a few minutes ago when she'd seen her with Mako and now she was sullen again. She felt a slight stabbing guilt, remembering that she'd never even bothered to ask Korra about her mood the night before even when the other girl had been a sounding board for her own troubles. Maybe she could make up for that.

"Two grill-eels," Korra waved two fingers at an old man behind a fry station they had halted at and handed him a few coins, then tossed Asami a grin. "On me."

"You're such a good host," she remarked, unintentionally charming.

"Well, I owe you for the boat ride," Korra returned and they both chuckled. The man behind the counter gave Asami what was definitely a fish snake coiled around a stick and she eyed the food skeptically.

Korra laughed. "Here," she reached and pinched the head between two fingers, then plucked it off Asami's stick. "Better?"

"Much." She agreed and took a bite, only to find the fish oddly sweet and the batter a bit spicy. It was a pleasant combination. "So, what happened to Mako?" She asked as they began to wander down the lane. She hoped she wasn't prying, and really she didn't want to know too much about Korra and Mako's relationship but the firebender was no doubt why Korra was huffing around the festival on her own. The other woman colored a little, looking at her feet as they walked and taking halfhearted bites of her grill-eel.

"I just needed a break from him," she muttered. "It's like he never talks, and when he does he says the wrong thing."

Asami chewed her lip. So, Korra and Mako perhaps weren't the 'dream couple' she'd imagined after all. "At least he's honest," she tried, wanting to be neutral.

"Yeah; he honestly has his head in his ass."

Asami cut a laugh. "He's not that bad. He's just a better listener than a talker."

"Well, I wish he had an opinion of his own sometimes."

"That's true," she agreed, shrugging and taking another bite of her eel. It really was better than she was expecting. "What were you wanting him to have an opinion on?"

Korra glanced up at her, seemingly struggling on a topic. "Well, Chief Unalaq told me that the south is sick with this 'spiritual decay', and he's offered to train me to be able to communicate with the spirits and I want to take him up on it. But my dad and Tenzin don't want me to. I feel like it's important for me to learn how to deal with the spirits though, and I don't know why they're both being such stubborn old men about it."

"That... doesn't make sense."

Korra paused to look at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're the Avatar and you're supposed to be the bridge between worlds. Why shouldn't you be learning how to talk with spirits if there's someone with the expertise right here willing to show you?"

"Exactly!" Korra appeared relieved and Asami smiled at her enthusiasm. "I think Tenzin's just afraid that I don't need him any more."

"Do you need him?" She asked honestly and Korra chewed her lip, looking down again as they resumed their walking.

"Yes," she decided then shook her head. "But no not really. I don't know!" She sighed aloud. "I just feel like it's not really working with Tenzin. He wants me to go on this trip to the air temples to 'get more in touch with my airbending'," she made hand quotes as emphasis. "But I think it's a waste of time. He thinks that I need to follow the order: water, earth, fire, air, spirits but I know air... and what the world needs right now is an Avatar who can communicate with the spirits."

"Korra..." she tilted her head a bit and the Avatar looked at her, curious for what she'd say. She considered her words carefully, knowing how quickly the girl could take something the wrong way. "You know airbending, but are you a master of it? If you were an air nomad, could you get your tattoos, like Tenzin? Today?"

Korra frowned and looked down, then sighed aloud again. "No. Tenzin says I know 'Korra-style airbending'. But I don't have time to master traditional airbending! The world doesn't have time! I need to study about the spirits more."

Asami shrugged. "Well, you have your answer then."

Korra blinked at her. "Wow... yeah. I guess I do." A slow smile creeped across her features and Asami found herself missing a step as she felt a new warmth in her cheeks when the Avatar grinned at her. She couldn't help but to return it.

"Ladies, ladies," a fine-boned man wearing a carnival-striped suit called from a game booth some feet away from them, breaking through the calm that had so suddenly filled them both. He waved cheerfully to them, then jabbed a thumb at the device behind him. "Step right up wont ya both and give the ol' hammer a try? Which of ya's is stronger yeah? Girls or boys?" Beside him were two Water Tribe boys, both about fourteen and smiling goofily at one another. "These lads are my top scorers of the night!" And then he winked, selling his point. "Nothin like gettin beat by a couple of girls."

The device behind him was an an old strong-man game, with a large mallet in place to strike the platform and launch the weight upwards along the scale. Little white lights flowed up and down the numbers for emphasis and Korra looked at Asami, who shrugged wryly back. "Could be fun to kick your ass again."

"Yeah right," Korra scoffed and walked over to take the mallet from the man in the hat, tossing out her finished eel on a stick. She threw Asami a cool glance. "You may know how to make an engine out of scrap metal and which nail color goes with which season, but I've got you beat on throwing heavy things."

She wrapped two hands around the mallet and pulled it up on her shoulder, then brought the whole head down onto the platform in a perfect arch. The weight bounded upwards, striking the big Eight and the man rung a little bell.

"Eight, a new record for the night!" He called and the boys scowled at one another. Korra grinned hugely and cracked her knuckles then rolled her shoulders, looking back at Asami with all the smooth confidence of a freshly groomed roosterhawk. Asami could have practically melted into her boots under that brazen smile. Instead, she quirked a fine brow.

"Pretty impressive, Avatar," she simmered and took the mallet from her. She straightened in front of the platform, placing one hand high on the mallet staff and the other low, then arched her body to sling the mallet down, drawing both hands together to create a smooth downward fall. The weight at the end pinged 8.5.

"Eight and a half! A new-new record for the night!"

"What!?" Korra roared, bouncing on her heels as she looked from the scoreboard to Asami, who was biting down a smug curl of her lips. She tossed her hair, handing the mallet back to the man along with what tokens she owed him.

"It's not really a strength thing," she explained in her easy, velvet tone. "It's more to do with how much momentum the mallet gets on its way down." She wet her lips, loving every moment of Korra's furiously scowled eyebrows. She knew how much Korra hated loosing, and especially how much she hated what Asami would say next. "Since I'm taller..."

"Oh give me a break," Korra rolled her eyes. "I want a rematch." She reached to grab the hammer back from the vendor but Asami laughed.

"Why don't we call it best of three and play that whack-a-penguin game over there?" She offered, pointing to a kiosk some yards away. Korra gave the booth a look, then smirked back at Asami in that hard little way which still made the heiress' stomach dance pleasantly.

"You're on," she declared and led the way, Asami close in tow.

* * *

"So, the guy turns to me and goes 'You're the Avatar, can't you do something about this?' And I look from him to his cabbages all over the street like, what does he expect me to do? Producebend?"

Asami covered her giggling with a hand, nearly dropping the plush buffalo-yak she had won at the ring toss booth. They were seated on a set of snow-rimmed park steps outside of the festival, each with an armful of carnival goodies and suffering a giddy sugar rush from candies, sweets, and pop. Asami had lost track of just how many games they had played, or who had won which but she was pretty certain that Korra had kept a tally. The night had quickly melted into a blur of bright lights and laughter as they had taken to racing from booth to booth to see what they could win against the other and it had swiftly become very easy to forget very many things.

"You didn't even try?" She asked, teasing and reaching up to take a handful of Korra's kettlecorn. They were practically drowning in fried, breaded snacks by now. Korra leaned on her elbow a few steps above Asami and in this corner of the festival at this late hour they were close to alone. The carnival continued to glow and sound loudly in front of them, like some distant bonfire of delight. Bathed warmly in its light, Asami no longer felt like such an outsider gazing in.

"Well..." the Avatar pulled a sheepish face, one that Asami recognized. "I may have used some airbending, but I don't think it really helped. Some kid called it a 'cabbagenado'."

Asami laughed again. "You finally learn airbending and you just use it to make a mess of the Republic City streets."

Korra rolled her eyes, shoulders sagging. "I just make a mess of everything, it feels like."

Asami tilted her head to look up the steps at her, catching her companion's sudden change in mood. "What do you mean?"

Korra bit her bottom lip, looking away, and suddenly the pleasant companionship they had been sharing all night seemed to dim.

"Nothing," she answered. "Forget I said anything."

Asami worried her lip, not wanting to forget it at all. The pole moonlight was falling so brightly on them, it brought to mind images of Korra buried in bedsheets and writhing under her hands in that same cool illumination...

She blinked, stopping herself. She couldn't go down that road, she couldn't let herself pretend that this night had been anything like what it was between them six months ago. That was over; Korra was with Mako and she herself had bigger things to worry over than her ex girlfriend. Suddenly, the weight of the contract waiting for her back on her ship pushed heavily on her shoulders. She had fallen into a little fantasy these past hours but she needed to return to the real world. Asami started to her feet, pulling her coat tighter around her.

"It must be way past midnight, I should probably get back to the ship."

"Oh," Korra stood too, looking at her with some sort of hesitancy. Poised above her on the steps and outlined heroically by such sharp shadow and light, Asami felt a strange twisting at her heartstrings. "I can walk you there."

"No," she said at once. She couldn't do this. She was over Korra, that's what she had told herself. That was what she had decided. "That's okay. I think I can find my own boat," she added with a half smile and stooped to gather up her carnival winnings.

Korra watched her, quietly, and seemed so close on the verge of saying something else. Finally, she just shrugged. "I guess I don't know when I'll see you again. I think I may stay here for a little while and study with my uncle..." she trailed in a way that let Asami know that she still wasn't entirely sold on her decision, but it seemed a good one to the heiress.

She nodded, feeling her black mane pick up in the wind. "When you come back to the city, you know where to find me, Korra," she said from behind the veil of hair. Part of her really hoped that Korra would wind up on her doorstep one day, looking around in that antsy, unsure way of hers which was so oddly charming. Another, much smaller part of her hoped not.

"Yeah." She pulled her mouth into a grim line. "I'll see you around, Asami."

Was it her imagination, or did Korra sound as sad as she suddenly felt?

Asami turned, carrying her piles of toys, and did her best to not look over her shoulder at the figure she could feel at her back; The Avatar, irresolute and pensive.

* * *

On the rise above the city, Korra's father had arranged for them and their visitors to stay in some of the guest lodges which overlooked the festival. It was a charming sight, and Korra was deeply glad to be surrounded by the smells and rustic architecture of her culture once again. She had a cabin to herself, which Naga was snoozing outside of and as Korra approached, toting her load of prizes, she greeted the polarbear-dog.

"A lot of help you were, not carrying all of this for me," she teased and stuck her tongue out at the beast, who cocked her head to the side.

She walked past the door flap into the cozy one-room cabin and dropped everything on the bed, looking around. It was nice to be alone, or so she told herself. It might have been a little nicer if Asami had wanted to come up and have some tea with her, but she supposed that it was probably for the best that she hadn't offered that after all. It had just been so... enjoyable to pal around with the heiress again, especially after spending so much time avoiding one another. She had almost forgotten how easy it was to have fun with Asami, or how much she liked talking with the other woman. Or looking at her.

Korra sighed and rolled her shoulders, annoyed at herself for thinking along those lines but someone called her name from the doorway, distracting her from her silent reprimand.

"Korra?" It was Mako.

"...Great," she groaned quietly and went to the door, holding the tarp aside to see her boyfriend standing out in the cold with his shoulders slumped. He looked hopefully at her.

"I thought I heard you come up," he glanced at the cabin beside hers, which was his for the night. "Can I come in?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Mako." She answered flatly.

"I didn't meant for -that-," he pressed, rolling his eyes, which was a relief. She hadn't said it directly to him yet, but she didn't really feel comfortable sleeping with her boyfriend while her parents were so close by. It felt a little disrespectful, and her dad was trying hard to like Mako; she knew that getting caught in bed together would risk ruining any of that goodwill. "I just thought we could talk... about earlier."

"What about it?" She demanded, arms crossed as she gazed back at him.

He looked a bit at a loss and she almost felt pity for the guy. He obviously didn't know what it was he had done wrong, but that just irritated her even more. How hard was it to just be a helpful boyfriend?

"I don't know..." he looked down at his feet, shuffling some snow with his boot. "I mean, I thought about it and if you want me to tell you what I think, then I will."

She sighed, relenting. "It's okay, Mako. I already know what I want to do."

"Oh, good," he smiled at her. "I knew you'd figure it out... and I support you, no matter what it is."

She huffed again, shaking her head softly at him. She just didn't know what to do with him, but at least he was trying. She leaned up on her toes and kissed the corner of his mouth. "I'm going to go to bed," she explained and he nodded, then flashed her a wicked little smirk.

"Okay, well... I'm right there," he pointed to his cabin. "If you want anything."

"Riiiiight," she rolled her eyes. "Goodnight, Mako," she turned to go back into her cabin.

"Night, Korra," she heard from behind the flap as she walked into the cabin proper, tugging her hood off her shoulders as she did.

It was almost a relief to have the easy excuse of her parents being nearby to keep Mako's lust at bay. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy sex with him, but it could be somewhat stressful meeting all of his expectations. When they had first started being intimate together, the only thing she had to compare to was Asami and sex with Mako was much, much different juxtaposed against her night on the boat with the heiress. He was passionate, very much so, and she liked that but she soon discovered that he wanted her to take charge in all of their endeavors and after a few goes she found that it was surprisingly taxing. She wasn't sure why, since she enjoyed taking charge in every other aspect of her life but in bed she realized that it was a great deal of pressure to perform when half the time she just felt that she had no idea what she was doing, and Mako wasn't much help.

He had soaked all the romance that he could into their first time together, which was when she discovered that it really was his first time, and his inexperience coupled with her own left her just feeling clumsy. His lack of communication didn't really help either, but she knew that she probably could try harder to open up that conversation even though she never really did. Whenever it came up, she just wound up shutting down the same way that he did and didn't really know the reason. It seemed a bit silly that she had an easier time touching him than talking about touching him.

Naga curled up in the only space of the cabin where she fit, which was in the near middle, and Korra ignored her bed to slump into the polarbear-dog's fur as usual. The deep, drumming beats of Naga's heart were soothing and allowed Korra's thoughts to drift away from her boyfriend and back to Asami, which didn't put her any more at ease.

"What am I doing, Naga?" She asked aloud, causing the dog to stir some. Korra had broken up with Asami in an emotional fit and run into Mako's arms opposite the cusp of that same turmoil, but looking back on it all she just couldn't relate to her frame of mind at the time. When she had realized she would never bend fire, water, and earth again she had wanted to separate herself from everyone: her family, her trainers, her friends. She had already felt so alone that it fit to push away the people she cared about as well. She had wanted some sort of sanctuary in solitude but then Aang had connected to her, and everything had gone back to the way it was. Well, almost.

It had been a half-truth when she told Asami that she didn't think that they could ever really be together, and even now she still only partially thought that. It was simpler being in a relationship with a boy, and just as Beifong had predicted, her relationship wound up being quite public. Mako was keeping a folder of the clippings of the two of them from the newspapers: some very charming photographs of them at a show or sharing street-vendor food, but what if those same images had cropped up with her and Asami? The titles probably wouldn't have read so kindly, she figured.

But did she care? Really?

She sighed aloud again and hung her head back into Naga's side. After they had first broken up, Korra went through an odd sort of mourning for their affair by hiding any of her pain behind her new relationship with Mako. Whenever she began pining for Asami, she simply sought out the firebender until she could forget missing Asami all-together. The past few nights however had brought all of that remorse back to light and she was slowly realizing that she never really quit missing the heiress. She had just shoved it all under a Mako-rug.

And none of this was to say that she didn't care for Mako. He was frustrating in his own ways but his silence wasn't thoughtlessness, and this thoughtlessness was never intentional. He was always the trustworthy, dependable teammate she had come to rely on and his courage when she needed someone had made him an anchor in her life. She loved Mako, yet Asami was the person she could talk to. Asami was the one to make her laugh.

Naga whined low in her throat and Korra yawned, feeling a fresh and sudden wave of sleepiness. It was well after 2 in the morning by now, after all. "I can't think about this now, Naga," she protested and closed her eyes, relaxing some. "I just need to be the Avatar."

That's right, she reminded herself. She didn't have time to worry about normal teenager things, she was the bridge between worlds and tomorrow she needed to have a very long conversation with her airbending master. That's what she should focus on. And that was the rug Korra would push her thoughts under.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Thank you for continuing with the story!_


	2. Chapter 2

Korra, Bolin, and Mako walked three-abreast along the Harbor City docks, peering among the moored boats for any sign of a familiar Sato steamer. The docks were slammed full of idle vessels, everything from industrial transports to local fishing skimmers and no one was going anywhere. Outside of the harbor sat a line of artillery-mounted warships, fresh from the North and watching over the bay with a callous warning: the harbor was shut down, without doubt. Water Tribesmen were milling among their tethered boats, talking in whispers amongst themselves and casting wary glances at the bending brothers as they passed, reminding Korra of how her boyfriend and friend stood out like sore thumbs in the south.

"Hey, there it is!" Bolin cried and waved towards a familiar three-spout yacht. "I guess she got stuck here after all." He jogged towards the gangplank and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oi! Asami!"

"Bolin, knock it off," Mako ordered but a few moments later Asami Sato appeared from one of the hatchways, looking annoyed. Seeing that it was only Bolin and the others however cleared her scowl and she held up a finger then vanished again. A few minutes later she was on the deck once more, wearing her coat and boots and she walked down the gangplank to meet them, her hands in her pockets.

"I wasn't expecting to see you guys," she greeted simply, looking between them all. "Bolin said you were going on a trip to the south pole?"

"Yeah, we just got back," Mako answered while Korra remained quietly by his side, feeling awkward with her boyfriend and her ex in the same conversation. "So, you got caught in the blockade?"

Asami cut a tight sigh and waved over her shoulder at her moored ship. "Yeah, I can't get out of the harbor and no one will tell me for how long. I'm not even a Southern Water Tribe citizen and I have all of my papers... you'd think that someone could just let me go back to Republic City."

Korra could hear the frustration in the heiress' clipped tone. The situation in the south since the Chief had brought his troops down from the north to 'maintain peace' was already feeling volatile and she'd only been back in the city for an hour. She realized that the tension in the docks was uncomfortable enough for someone who cared about Harbor City, but for someone who needed to go home and run a company it was probably a torture.

"Maybe I can help," Korra offered. "I mean, I can try to say something to my uncle, he might pull some strings." She was actually pretty glad to still have Asami around but she didn't like how selfish that little glow made her. Asami didn't belong here and a good friend would try to get her home.

"That would be great, but I might as well stick around a few days more now. Varrick sent his assistant over this morning to arrange a meeting with me the day after tomorrow, so we can sign off on our deal."

"Well that sounds really interesting," Bolin agreed, tapping his thick fingers together. "But its cold and I'm hungry and can we please go get something hot to eat before my girlfriend comes to find me?"

Korra chuckled at his anxiousness. It had been fun watching Bolin suffer under the attention of her cousin, Eska. "Okay, c'mon. There's a good noodle place on the corner here." She started to lead the way, then realized that Asami was joining the group. The thought of having lunch with Mako -and- the engineer caused her a flash of queasiness but Asami surprised her by addressing Mako, friendly and diplomatic.

"So, what was the southern pole like?"

"Cold, but pretty," he answered.

"And terrifying," Bolin added. "There were spirits everywhere and they were all trying to eat us and Chief Unalaq had to dance with them with this glowing water light and then my snowmobile broke and Korra's dad left the group cuz they had a fight and then there was this forest in the middle of the snow but Unalaq said Korra had to go in on her own and then she -did- and I wasn't sure she was going to come out but then WHOOSH!" He threw his hands up into air. "This bright light shot up into the sky and I was like 'she's dead for sure this time,' but she wasn't."

Listening to his rapid version of events caused Korra to roll her eyes and glance over her shoulder at the heiress. "I opened the southern spirit portal," she explained, as if that were a perfectly normal thing to have done. "It was surrounded by this frozen forest at the pole, and now there are lights in the sky again."

Asami's eyebrows arched towards her hairline. "That was you? I saw it last night... it was incredible."

Korra felt her cheeks color a little under Asami's praise and she shrugged, attempting to pass it off. "Well, all in a day's work for the Avatar."

They entered under the blue awning of the noodle shop only to find it quite full, but Bolin pointed out four empty seats at the rough-wood bar. Korra sat down and Mako took the seat to her left but it was Asami that sat at her right and sandwiched between the two, she thought for a moment that she would be sick from dread. She was just wondering whom she was supposed to talk to when Mako turned to Bolin, chatting to him about Eska and she had her answer. Cautiously, she looked over at Asami.

"So..."

The engineer was plucking a menu from a little box, her chin tilted so that her black mane fell to one side of her shoulders and framed her pale throat. "So. Do you think you made the right decision?"

Korra blinked at her, unsure of what she was asking and dimly aware of the fact that her immediate, internal response was 'no'.

"Wh- what about?"

Asami gave her a querying glance. "Staying here, to train with your uncle. I saw that Tenzin and the family left yesterday morning."

"Oh. Oh! Yeah. I mean," she paused, turning glum now that she actually thought about her answer. "That was until we got back and I saw that Unalaq brought the Northern Water Tribe army here. I don't know what I think about that."

A stooped woman behind the counter shuffled to their end of the bar to take orders, unintentionally interrupting, and when Asami started asking three questions about each dish Korra huffed audibly and took it upon herself to order for the woman.

"You're at a noodle shop, you're getting noodles," Korra told her stubbornly but Asami just smirked.

"That's a good plan. Do you want to tell me what you and your father argued about?"

"Oh, that," she sighed and pushed an empty sauce bowl around with her chopsticks. "Do you remember me telling you that Aang ordered the White Lotus to train me in that compound, where Katara lives?"

"Of course," she answered, giving her her full attention.

"Well, I found out that that wasn't true. It was my dad, and Tenzin, that wanted to keep me locked up here. They made up that whole story about Aang so that I would go along with it." Just saying the words aloud stirred at the embers in her belly.

"Wow, thats..." she glanced away, growing quiet. "That was a big lie."

"I know!" Korra agreed so loudly that both Bolin and Mako glanced around at them. She brushed a hand at them and turned back to Asami, lowering her voice. "I'm just so furious with him. I hated that compound, Asami, and he kept me there like a prisoner."

"Well, what was the reason?"

Korra shook her head, annoyed. "I don't know. He just said 'we did what we thought was best'." Asami frowned and looked away again and, watching her, Korra grew curious. "What?"

"I still think there's more going on here than what they're saying, is all. I've met your dad, and he seems like a thoughtful person. And I know that Tenzin is. He's very cautious, sure," she shrugged a shoulder. "But he's also very wise. I think that they had you in that compound for a reason but it's strange that they wont tell you why."

"Yeah. It's just so frustrating," she drummed her fingers on the bar, scowling. Asami nudged her genially with an elbow to bring her back around.

"You're going to have to talk to him."

She scoffed, pushing away her chopsticks. "I don't want to talk to him. He's a jerk."

"He's your dad."

"He's trying to control my life," she rounded back on her, suddenly prepared for a fight.

"He loves you," she continued, gentle but firm. "And coming from three people who don't have the luxury of a loving father, you can at least talk to him."

Korra stopped abruptly, looking around her at the bending brothers only to find that they were both studying the bar top, obviously overhearing the conversation. When she glanced back at Asami, she saw that the heiress was meeting her gaze sympathetically and suddenly she felt like the world's biggest brat.

"Yeah, I'll talk to him," she relented sullenly. "Sorry."

A bowl of steaming noodles appeared on the bar in front of her and she slid it towards her, staring at the hot, spiced mass so that she wouldn't have to look at her friends. She suddenly couldn't believe that she had been bellyaching about her dad to the brothers, who had lost their father in a violent mugging, and Asami Sato. Sure, she was still angry with Tonraq, but she did need to give him a chance to explain himself.

"It's no big deal," Asami was saying, poking at her green noodles with her chopsticks. "Um, what exactly did you order for me?"

The Avatar glanced over and gave her a little smirk. "Seaweed. It's a lot better than it looks."

Asami gave the bowl a wary look but fished a clump of noodles between her sticks and tasted, then arched a brow at her. "We should definitely go out to eat together more often," she noted and dug in and Korra grinned wider.

* * *

The trial of the Southern rebels involved in Chief Unalaq's kidnapping had been a difficult three hours for Asami, though not simply because of the discomfort of the hard benches or the cool draft of the ice-vaulted court. Throughout the proceedings, Korra had stood rigidly at the sidelines of the defendant's table where seven men and women waited for the verdict by the Tribe's judge, Hota; watching the Avatar's firm scowl and ram-rod figure had been nearly more nerve-wracking for Asami than listening to the proceedings themselves. Korra's father and mother were both standing trial for treason against the Water Tribe, and Korra's gaze had remained fixed on her parents or the judge.

Everything over the past few days had happened so quickly, including the trial. By now Asami was almost giving up hope of making it back to Republic City before winter and was resolving herself to handle Future Industries affairs via wire from her hobbled ship while the South dealt with this near-civil war. She knew that Korra was doing her best to keep the Tribe from descending into bloodshed, but it was a tall order even for the Avatar and already it was costing her her own parents. Men encouraged by Varrick had decided to take Unalaq into their own hands, literally, and Korra's family was paying the price.

When she had been called to testify, Korra had tried her best to be a witness for her parents while also being the neutral Avatar but the line had become muddled under Hota's questioning and Asami had bit her tongue, unable to help as she watched Korra flounder. Bolin had been slightly more proactive for her defense but it hadn't done anyone much good and Asami was annoyed that Varrick had trusted the earthbender with paying off the judges. A poorly laid plan if there ever was one.

Then the verdict had come: Korra's mother, Senna, had been acquitted but her father and the others were all sentenced to death as traitors. For a moment, Asami thought that Korra would actually enter the Avatar state but Chief Unalaq managed to talk her down and the punishment was shifted to life in prison. A dull victory, but one which kept the council chamber intact.

The prisoners were all linked together in chains to be led out of the blue-lit courtroom and after several confused minutes, Asami, Korra, Senna and the bending brothers filtered somberly into one of the radiating halls to wait and hear just where Tonraq would be placed. As they waited, Asami leaning against a wall some steps behind the others, an official approached the group and told Senna that one member of the family would be allowed five minutes to speak with Tonraq. The Water Tribe woman looked to her daughter and squeezed her hand.

"You should go see your father," she advised, her voice choked with tears but Korra shook her head.

"No mom, you go ahead. Tell him I love him."

Senna didn't argue; she mouthed a silent 'thanks' and turned to go with the official while Mako placed a tighter arm around Korra's shoulders, talking with Bolin in some attempt to fill the disquiet of the hall. Asami sighed tersely, making up her mind that she was going to have to find someone to give them more information about Tonraq, and started past the trio but when she looked back to tell them where she was going she was struck by the look on Korra's face.

The Water Tribe girl was staring at the floor, her outline shivering with how hard she was trying to maintain her calm and she looked for a moment so fragile that it was almost as if Mako's arm was all that was keeping her in one solid piece. Despite the emotion threatening under her surface, she continued to try and hold to whatever 'Avatar Korra armor' she was layering herself in but Asami could see that it wouldn't last.

The heiress let out an annoyed 'tut' as Mako failed to realize just how hard Korra was trying to keep strong in the company of others and she reached forward, taking the girl's wrist. "I need to talk to you," she said flatly and tugged the girl away from Mako. Without asking anyone's permission, she opened a random unlocked door in the hall and pulled Korra through it.

They were in some office, a book keeper's if the paper-strewn furnishings were an indication, and it was thankfully empty for the moment. She turned to the Avatar, tilting her head slightly as she regarded the girl who was so clearly on the verge of something awful. It wrung at her heart to see her own torment reflected in someone she cared so much about.

"Korra," she called to her but before she could add anything else the Avatar was lunging weakly into her arms. "It's okay," Asami said at once, squeezing her fiercely as Korra tucked her face into the engineer's collar. She could feel her body trembling in heavy sobs and she just laid her cheek into her wild, spiced hair. "It's going to be okay."

"He's going to prison..." she croaked back, still clinging to her. "What if I never see him again?"

"You'll see him," she promised, eyes shutting as she stroked Korra's back. She knew every little fear in Korra's heart, knew every detail of the horror of imagining her father cast away in some cell, alive but gone. She knew.

"I can't believe I let this happen," Korra sobbed after a while, dismayed. "He wasn't a rebel, how can the judge just throw him away like that?"

"I don't know, but we can appeal or something," she answered quickly, knowing that the last thing Korra needed was despair. Korra relied on action, and idleness was her greatest agitation. There's _something_ we can do Korra, we just have to figure it out."

"Yeah," Korra's sniffling became quieter, her sobs little more than small sighs as she stood wrapped around Asami, who held her just as tightly. They swayed, soft and quiet in the chamber, and Asami wasn't aware of how long she held Korra or when exactly the girl stopped her crying but she was glad that they had found someplace quiet for her to hide in, if even for a little while. In the hall she could see how close Korra was to tears, had been amazed that no one else had noticed, and she knew just how much the other woman would have loathed to collapse in front of anyone. Reflectively, she realized that she herself had won the right to be someone Korra could lean on, for bad or for better.

Finally, Korra started to disentangle herself and leaned away, not quite meeting Asami's eyes. The heiress reached for a handkerchief from a pocket and brought it to dab at Korra's cheeks with a grim smile.

"I'm sorry," Korra muttered, still looking down while Asami cleaned her face like some wayward child. She sniffled back her crying. "I shouldn't have lost it like this. It's not fair to you."

"Korra, look at me," she insisted, suddenly serious and the Avatar struggled to lift up her sky-blue eyes, rimmed as they were in red and tears. "When my father tried to kill you and the boys, and when he betrayed the whole city, you were there for me. You didn't even like me, and you gave me a safe place to stay. You were my friend when everyone in Republic City thought I was a traitor and I'm going to be here for you. I -am- here for you."

Korra's mouth became a downward line as she swallowed something back, her eyebrows threaded together. She gave a scoffing laugh suddenly. "I liked you. I liked you from the moment I saw you."

The comment was so sweet, and so bitter, that it sunk into Asami's breast and stung at her. She broke her gaze from Korra's, looking down, and realized that her arm was still around Korra's back while Korra's were on her waist. Regretfully, she dropped her hold and Korra did likewise as they both looked anywhere around the room but at each other.

"My mom should be back by now," the Water Tribe girl cleared her throat. "I need to check on her."

"Yeah. I'll take the boys with me to Varrick's, if you want."

"That would be great," she chuckled soggily. "Mako makes me nervous when he does that 'hawk' thing."

"When he stares at everything like it's going to attack?"

"Yeah," she laughed again then grew quiet. "Thank you, Asami. For everything."

Asami titled her head again, wanting to say something more but left with nothing but sentiments better left buried away. "Here," she said after a moment and pushed her damp handkerchief into Korra's hand. "Just in case."

Korra smirked at the wadded cloth and shoved it into her pocket as Asami led her out of the office, closing the door behind them so that no one would ever know that the Avatar had been subject to a moment of weakness, brief and deserved as it was. By the time they found the boys and Senna again, Korra was her stalwart self and Asami felt a small, warm ache when she watched her embrace her mother. It was somehow fulfilling to know that she was the person the Avatar could lean on. And also, somehow bitter.


	3. Chapter 3

Varrick was an interesting man, to say the least. He had more money than even Asami Sato and about half of her cool wit. His entire personality seemed to be built on extravagance for extravagance's sake and Korra could not quite make up her mind if she liked the eccentric or not. On one hand, he was resourceful and helpful, but the way which he leapt from topic to topic within a single breath was exhausting and there was something to his enthusiasm which was vaguely off-putting. However, she was currently focusing on the "helpfulness" side of his personality now that she was back in Republic City, since that was what she truly needed.

Her father had been freed from wrongful imprisonment, which had been so much Varrick's fault that the Avatar had had no qualms over accepting the inventor's help to break her father and fellow Tribesmen from their prison transport. It had taken all of Korra's willpower to leave her father and the newly proclaimed rebels behind back in the South Pole and return to Republic City without them, but Tonraq had insisted and she wanted to respect her father's wisdom. She knew that he was right, that as the Avatar she could offer her people more help by gathering allies for the South than going to war herself but it was a painful decision for her southern heart all the same. She wanted to fight; fighting was what she knew, and being back in Republic City was proving that.

Korra had had no success with convincing President Raiko, a fact which had left her flabbergasted. How the man could simply sit in his crisp violet suit and do nothing while her people fought and died for their freedom was utterly beyond her scope of reason. As far as the Avatar was concerned, Raiko was a lazy thin-lipped coward and she was sorry such a spineless mask had ever been elected to begin with.

And then there was Mako.

She would have hoped that as her boyfriend, Mako would be able to offer her even the tiniest support but no, the firebender wanted to play neutral territory as usual. He had even tried to defend Raiko's decision to stay out of a conflict which did not directly affect his country, as if the concepts of freedom, common good, or human rights only meant something to mainlanders. She'd been so furious with Mako that she had stormed out of his place the same as Raiko's office and her violent steps had led her to the only person she could think of who could actually help her to come up with a plan of action. Iknik Varrick.

Varrick wasn't only wealty and intelligent, he was also one of her people and genuinely wanted the freedom of the South. He was a good, if strange, ally to have in times like these and Korra was not the only person to think so.

"Hey, going somewhere?" A familiar voice cut through the Avatar's fuming as she stomped along the dock towards Varrick's ship that afternoon, and she paused just long enough to realize it was Asami who had spoken. The heiress stood with a stack of papers and Korra noticed that she had dark lines beneath her eyes: the mark of someone who had lost too much sleep.

"Yeah, sorry," she answered, still too angry to be entirely moved, even by Asami. "I'm going to see Varrick."

"Me too," Asami remarked, looking from her to the crisp white ship that she too was obviously preparing to board. "We can go together," she offered and took a step beside her.

Korra gave her a reluctant smile as they walked abreast up the gangplank. Despite her annoyance, she was glad as ever to have Asami's company: the heiress seemed to know just how to calm the waters around Korra... even though she unintentionally created fresh, subtle ripples all on her own. Being with Asami was as much soothing as it was exciting, but Korra buried that thought as quickly as it arose. "Is this about your business deal?" She asked, wanting to end her own line of thinking.

"Mhm," she answered, chewing her lip as she hesitated. "Actually, I don't think that our arrangement is going to work. I checked in on my inventory when I came back and over 60% of the sales which were supposed to be finalized while I was in the South just pulled out. One of my satomobile factories is actually understaffed because of Cabbage Corp spreading rumors that I was going to start making layoffs. People just left to accept worse jobs for Cabbage Corp instead..." she sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping, and Korra frowned.

Listening to Asami talk about her company was startling: she'd had no idea that it would be so hard to run Future Industries and she could tell that doing so was really taking its tole on the engineer. Asami was more depressed and less herself every time that Korra saw her.

"Hey, Varrick's one of the richest men in the whole Water Tribe. He'll have an idea, I'm sure of it." Korra didn't have a very good head for business, but she figured that the tycoon owed Asami since the heiress had been a part of the group that saved him and his assets from the Water Tribe blockade in the south.

The heiress gave her a bleak glance in return as they topped the stairs into the ship's main deck, which Korra was slow to realize was peppered with... arrows? Confused, she only barely caught an image of Varrick standing at the opposite end of the deck with a blindfold and an archery bow before she realized Asami was one step away from becoming target practice. With a curtailed warning she reached and grabbed the heiress by her shoulders, tugging her safely back to her just as an arrow came whizzing by in front of them to land into a padded target to their left.

Asami gasped, staring in a moment of disbelief at the arrow which had almost become intimately acquainted with her spleen, and in unison both women turned to see Varrick take off his blindfold.

"Oh, " the mogul gaped at them, surprised. "Hello."

As they meandered back off the boat some thirty minutes later, Korra was feeling much improved. Varrick's idea for her to go see General Iroh of the United Forces could actually work, all she had to do was convince the Fire Nation prince that her people needed his help and she had confidence that she could do just that. Iroh seemed to like her, both as the Avatar and as Korra, and the young general certainly had her respect. Two warriors speaking on even footing would be much simpler than sitting across from Raiko in his perfumed office.

Asami, however, was comparably more pensive as she left alongside the Avatar and Korra cut her blue gaze at her friend. "Thinking about the mechatanks?"

She nodded, bringing her thumbnail to rest between her teeth. "It's still a massive risk, backing Tonraq's rebels." Korra's frown was instant but Asami fortunately seemed to realize her word choice. "I mean, I'm gambling that your father and his people are going to win this fight and be able to pay me back for the tanks afterwards."

"Of course they'll be able to," she assured. "And with your tanks, it wont be a gamble. They can win this fight with mechatanks." They crossed the gangplank and started along the creaking, salt-soaked docks.

Asami's mouth turned down grimly and Korra elbowed her. "C'mon, this can really save your company, right?"

"Yeah," she agreed slowly. "As long as everything comes together, it really can..." she paused, appearing startled, and Korra looked from Asami to the direction she was staring at to see a young man, only a little older than them, dressed in a stylish blue day-coat and sporting a briefcase. He wore a similar look of surprise as Asami, which quickly melted into a smooth, firm smile.

"Miss Sato," the man greeted her, tilting his hat.

"Yoalin Mu," she simmered back and Korra was struck by Asami's tone and the way that her shoulders, chin, and especially her hips shifted sublimely. Even her grip on her portfolio seemed to have softened and Korra was reminded, compellingly, of the Asami Sato who had awed her as she mingled with the best and richest of Republic City that very first night they met. She had become so used to Asami : the racer, engineer, martial-artist that she had almost forgotten about Miss Sato : the aristocrat. "Do you know Avatar Korra?" She asked, tilting her head elegantly towards the Water Tribe girl.

Korra blinked, brought suddenly into the conversation, and lifted her chin at Yoalin. "Hey."

Mister Mu tore his green gaze from Asami and smiled genially at Korra, offering her a short bow of his head. "I have not. It's a pleasure," he reached for her hand to kiss and, reluctant, she took and squeezed his in a hard shake instead. Yoalin appeared momentarily surprised but good breeding kept him from commenting with anything other than a chuckle. "You're very much like the papers say, Avatar Korra."

"Oh yeah?" She retracted her hand to stick onto her hip, wondering where this Mister Mu had even come from and how he knew Asami.

"Korra's a lot more than what the papers give her credit for," the engineer cut in diplomatically, her attention still on Yoalin so that she did not see how Korra blushed a tint. Yoalin grinned and shrugged.

"Aren't we all?" He said wryly. "I did not expect to see you on the docks, Miss Sato."

"Oh, we were just visiting with-"

"Mister Varrick?" He guessed and she nodded with a tame smile. He gestured with his briefcase. "I'm his two-o-clock. Father wanted me to see about his fuel contracts. But, that wasn't quite what I meant..." his smile turned impish. "I was hoping that you were going to call when you got back to Republic City. You did promise me another dinner, after all."

Asami chuckled shortly and pushed back curl, while Korra felt her cheeks darken a fresh shade and not out of embarrassment. Asami was dating? And she was dating this guy?

"Right, I did. I only got back from the South a few days ago, but I'll write you a note when my schedule's evened out some."

He tipped his hat again. "I'll be looking forward to it," he promised and nodded his head to both women. "Miss Sato. Avatar Korra, it was good to finally meet you."

"Yeah... swell." She muttered back and started along the dock while Mister Mu waved his way past them to Varrick's boat. Not five whole minutes ago Korra had felt a glimmer of hope for her mission but now... now she just felt queasy.

"Hey, you okay?" Asami wondered, matching her hard step as they worked towards the city streets.

"Yeah, why?" She grumbled, sullen and aggressive. Who was that Mu guy? Some suit, obviously. Probably private schooled and sitting on a fat trust fund.

"I don't know, you just started scowling all over again. Did you not like Yoalin?"

"I don't even know the guy," she retorted, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Do you?"

"I've known him for a few years," she shrugged as they walked along. "Our dads did business together and we went to a lot of the same social clubs."

"Is that where you guys go for dinner ?" She couldn't help the way that the word slithered from between her teeth, as if it were in some way foul.

Asami's demeanor suddenly cooled. "No... he took me to a new place in downtown."

Korra held back a snort. The guy was obviously an idiot if he thought that Asami would be impressed by some hob-nob restaurant in downtown. "Well, how was it?"

"It was fine, I guess."

"Just fine?" She looked over at the engineer, scoffing. "I mean, you're going to see him again for 'fine'?"

"Why do you care if I do?" She demanded shortly and Korra realized that she'd made a mistake.

"I don't," she insisted, looking back at her feet. She never should have opened her mouth about Mu, but the thought of that skinny suit laughing with Asami over cocktails, putting his hand on her knee under the bar, of Asami tossing her hair the way that she did when basking in the attention of others... it just made her entire stomach twist.

"Good."

"Good." She sighed irritably, not wanting to ask the question on her mind but it was out of her mouth before she could stop it "...Are you dating anyone else?"

What did it matter if Asami was dating? She shouldn't care, she was with Mako. Happily with Mako, even.

Asami was slow to respond, as if selecting her answer carefully in a way that the ever-candid Avatar envied. "I've been out on a few dates here and there, but I don't really have time for anything serious right now."

"Oh." She wasn't sure if she felt relieved or just... jealous.

At the street corner, Asami stopped and turned to face her, her tapered Fire Nation features pulled into hesitant somberness. "Korra... you dumped me," she started slowly but Korra took an immediate step backwards, almost hopping with a sudden need to be as far from Asami as possible.

"I know," she answered because there didn't seem to be anything more elegant to say than that. Now however, she could have drowned under the awkward tension running through her and she all but fell over herself to find a way out of the conversation. "I gotta go talk to General Iroh about this... army... thing." She was still backing away and Asami pursed her lips.

"Yeah, I need to go see about my inventory. I guess I'll see you later."

"Okay, good luck," she turned and waved over her shoulder, trying to not take off at a complete jog. They had never talked about their breakup, not once. After they ended their relationship, it was as if it had become something that they hid from even themselves and Asami had just broken that quiet agreement. Maybe they should have talked about it, maybe talking in the first place would have kept them together... Korra growled and shook her head. She wasn't going to do this; she was going to see Iroh and she was going to save the South. That's all she needed to focus on now. That was her job.

The office doors of the Republic City police station burst inwards, slamming against the walls with a clamor that ripped every head around to find the source of the noise. The Avatar stood in the threshold, powerful fists clenched at her sides, and not a single man in the entire room was brave enough to get to his feet.

"You," her water gaze landed squarely on Mako where he sat at his desk in the near middle of the room, staring at her like a lemur in a trap. "You snitched on me to Raiko?" She demanded, marching for his desk. She had only just gotten Iroh to work with her when President Raiko had appeared at the meeting, tossing around his weight and spoiling their plans. Bolin had been the one to spill the beans on his brother, and Korra didn't know if she was angrier with Raiko or Mako but at least one of those men she could hit in the face.

The firebender attempted to assuage her, his tone level and palms open. "Korra, I can explain,"

"You can explain why my own boyfriend would go behind my back?" She cut him off, slamming a hand on his desk as she waited for his response.

"Korra, the President asked me a direct question about your plan," he insisted, his own temper starting to show in his voice. "What was I supposed to say?"

The Water Tribe girl was in no mood at all for his justification. How could he have done this to her, after everything he saw her people going through in the South? How could he possibly be so stupid?

"Mako, you betrayed me, and my family," she shouted back, so wildly incensed that she twisted a ball of air beneath her foot and kicked at his desk, sending the entire piece flying across the office in a crash of wood and papers. Mako shot to his feet, refusing to be cowed.

"Enough!" He barked, staring her down in a way that made Korra want to kick him next. "Listen, I'm a cop, I have a duty to this city. I can't be constantly worrying about how to keep you from making these massive mistakes!"

"Well, I have a duty too, to the entire world," she pointed at him. "And it seems like you're the one constantly standing in the way of me doing it!"

He snorted. " Well, I guess since we're both more worried about our jobs, maybe we don't have room to worry about our relationship!"

She blinked. The thought had occurred to her as well, in her rage-fueled frenzy, but hearing it from him somehow startled her. Mako... she loved Mako. She hated him at the moment but he was her best friend; her teammate. Korra fell quiet and as she realized what had just happened, she deflated. "So what does that mean... you're breaking up with me?"

Mako's figure was rigid as he looked away for a moment, considering. "Yeah..." his amber eyes flicked back on her, settling there. "I am."

That was it then, the close to the moment when Korra had sprinted across the ice to leap into his arms when she had reforged her connection to the elements those months ago. The memory stung at her eyes and she turned on her heel, making wordlessly for the door to leave him behind as soon as possible. What was left to be said? They had certainly shouted enough, had made a public scene and hurt one another in classic form. It was over, and to hell if it was.

Numbly, she spilled out into the late afternoon streets and looked around her, unsure of where to go next but without making the conscious decision her steps turned towards the Future Industries offices. She didn't know what she was doing, what she was feeling, or even what she thought but she'd know once she saw Asami. The engineer always made things clear for Korra... when she wasn't muddling them.

She sat at her father's desk in her father's office... no. Her desk, her office. Asami had to remember that sometimes and was always a little surprised when she forgot. For six months she had been running Future Industries, and yet it still felt like _his_ company, his employees, his house. All of it still felt like Hiroshi.

She sighed aloud and rubbed her forehead then reached to pour herself another shot of warm saké. The rice alcohol wasn't strong, and it was more for the warm memories it called to mind than a want to dull them. Hiroshi Sato was a connoisseur of saké and had often enjoyed it after his evening meals... and so sometimes she did as well. It was a strange habit, she realized. She didn't want to become her father, but she still needed something of him to hold close when his burden began to feel like such a weight.

Asami contemplated the papers in front of her and felt the need to have yet another shot's worth. Varrick was sure that the open sea was safe enough to trade on, and as a shipping mogul he was certainly the man who would know but she could barely get insurance on her stock during a conflict like what was happening in the South Pole. In the privacy of her office that evening she was feeling hesitant all over again. The entire arrangement simply appeared to be a gamble, but did she really have a choice anymore? Wasn't it this, or give in?

A harsh knock on the office door broke through her worrying but before she could ask for a name it swung open and Avatar Korra's ferocious features partially startled her. She couldn't recall pissing Korra off, but for a moment she thought that her ex lover was going to break something and she simply hoped it wasn't going to be something that she valued. She reflected that she probably shouldn't have reacted so defensively earlier that afternoon when Korra had started asking all of those questions about her social life.

"Can I sit?" Korra huffed, pushing the door closed behind her and gesturing at one of the office chairs in front of Asami's desk. The heiress, holding her petite cup between her fingers, just nodded. "Thanks." She plopped into the chair, fur-boots draping over one of the arms and her scowl turning to the rug as she fumed in silence.

So... she wasn't mad at Asami, at least. She wouldn't have made it this long without a threat if it had been the heiress who had pissed Korra off this time. She sighed as she realized that most of the time she saw Korra anymore was when Korra was in a foul mood and wondered if that was her fault, or someone else's.

"...Iroh said no," she guessed after a few moments of silence.

Korra's lip curled. "Actually, we were going to work something out. President Raiko showed up, though, and ordered him not to. And guess where Raiko heard about the plan from?"

Asami arched a fine brow, lips pursed. "Lin Beifong...?" Asami had become convinced that Lin knew everything that happened in Republic City, she just wasn't sure how.

"Nope. Her detective, Mako."

Asami held her breath and let it out slowly as she thought through her response. This was very bad for Korra and Mako. "He told Beifong?"

"He told Raiko himself," she sat up, twisting to lean her elbows on her knees as she vented in a low, bitter voice. "I don't get it, all he had to do was to keep quiet and my people could have actually had the help of the United Forces, but now..." she grit her teeth for a moment, then relaxed as her anger ebbed. "Asami," her voice was quieter, tired, and she surprised her with her question. "Am I messing up the world?"

The engineer blinked. What?

She got to her feet abruptly, setting down her cup on the edge of the desk, and moved around to lean on the opposite end so that she was closer to Korra. She wanted to reach out to her, as she had after Tonraq's trial, but she crossed her arms over her chest instead. She couldn't keep doing this... comforting Korra was beginning to really harm her when all it did was make her long for their closeness all over again.

"Korra, no." She insisted gently. "You're the Avatar, you're doing the opposite of messing up the world... you fix it."

"But am I?" She looked up at her, the anger gone from her water-blue eyes as she stared plaintively up at her for an answer and Asami's stomach twisted. She would have given anything to bend down and kiss that fear out of Korra's gaze. "I can't figure out how to talk to Spirits, I just seem to make them angrier. I couldn't keep the South from going to war and now I can't save it..." she flinched as the words came out and her gaze fell floor-ward again. Asami pushed down whatever internal voice was telling her to pull Korra into her arms.

"Korra," she wet her lips, realizing that nothing had changed about the Water Tribe girl since her battle with Amon half a year ago. She still took failure just as hard and now it was as if she didn't even have the warmth of Mako to lean on when it began to overwhelm her. "You don't know how to talk to spirits? Well, neither do I." She shrugged. "Does anyone? At least you're trying and I know that you'll figure it out, just like you figured out airbending. You learned how to firebend, earthbend, and waterbend all before you were eight years old... some things you learn really quickly and it just takes you a little longer to get the hang of others, but that's all right. You figure it out, eventually. And as far as the Southern Water Tribe goes, no one could have stopped that. Not even the Avatar. The South was isolated for hundred years, it's a wonder that it stayed united with the Northern Water Tribe after all of that. This civil war has been a long time coming and you at least kept it from getting bloody while you were there. Everything with Tonraq and Unalaq happened before you were even born, you couldn't control any of that. And now..." she paused, looking firmly at Korra as she knew Tenzin would have. Her fingers twitched to push back that tameless brown fringe. "Now you just have to not give up."

Slowly, the Avatar glanced back up again and this time she was smiling, grimly.

"Okay," she said and stood, clearing her throat as she straightened. "Okay. I need to borrow a boat."

Asami's brow furrowed, taken aback. "Wait, what?"

Korra rolled her shoulders, looking a little embarrassed. "General Iroh said that I should go see the Firelord for support and I need to leave tonight, before anything else gets out of hand. Do you have a boat I can borrow?"

"You... you're going to leave?"

"Well, I'm not doing any good here. Maybe in the Fire Nation I can actually find someone who will help the Water Tribe."

She felt stunned. "I thought that..." she trailed and Korra tilted her head as she looked at her.

"What is it?"

Asami sort of scoffed, more at herself than anyone else, and straightened to move around the desk again. "I don't know, I guess I thought that maybe you'd stick around long enough to help me with this deal."

"Deal? You mean the mechatanks? What do you need me for?"

Asami didn't actually have a response. There wasn't exactly anything concrete which she needed for Korra to do, but... but she was tired and she was scared for her company. Was it so much to ask for Korra to offer her help in all of this? To just be there for her? She guessed that it was. Korra wasn't her girlfriend, after all, and she had her Avatar duties. Asami realized she was being stupid as she settled heavily back into her chair and shrugged.

"Nothing," she said sullenly. "And I don't have a boat for you. Mine is still in Harbor City. I guess you'll have to ask Varrick."

Korra hesitated at the opposite side of the desk, but Asami wasn't looking at her any longer. She put her attention into carefully refilling her saké cup, making sure to not spill any upon the gleaming desk or crisp ledgers.

"Asami," she said the name gently but the heiress shook her head.

"I think you should go ahead and go, if you want to get to Varrick's ship before he winds up at some club for the night," she suggested, attempting to keep her voice level. She couldn't do this, she should never have gotten this close with Korra again. All the girl did was let her down and she just felt so foolish for thinking Korra could even be a friend to her. The worst of it was that it wasn't really even Korra's fault, she simply had her work as the Avatar... but it didn't make Asami feel any less alone.

The Water Tribe girl stepped forward and placed her palms on the end of Asami's desk, leaning towards her some. "When I get back, we'll figure this out," she said sternly and Asami finally glanced up at her. "I'll help in any way that I can," Korra continued and the little smirk she offered her made Asami want to believe in her all over again, her stomach fluttering in that way she hated and loved. Korra looked down suddenly, and cleared her throat. "Maybe, when I get back... I mean. Maybe we can..." she lifted her gaze and Asami held her breath as she tried to decipher what was in that searching glance, while the Avatar hung upon something unsaid. She seemed to lose it, whatever it was, and shook her head instead. "We'll figure out a way to keep your company," she said, a bit lamely, and stood up straight again.

Asami let out a tense breath. "That'd be great," she agreed politely. "I'll see you when you get back."

Korra nodded and turned for the door, moving methodically, but paused at the threshold. "Can you do me a favor, and not tell anyone that I went?"

"...Why? Won't Mako worry?"

She snorted. "No, I don't think so," and she walked through the opened door to whatever new Avatar mission was in front of her. Asami stared at the empty space in the hall, and then looked back at the full cup in her hands, considering it for a long moment before setting it daintily back upon its tray.

Korra was gone, again, and it didn't matter when she came back. She was not Asami's, and she simply needed to let the Avatar and all her heart-hurt for the girl go with her. She saw that now, clearer than ever, and it was a almost a relief to finally accept it. Almost.


	4. Chapter 4

The unbroken rumble of the speedboat had become somewhat lulling after being an hour off the Republic coast and, in that twilight hour which Korra sped through, the colors of the sea and sky created a complimentary void of endless gray. Were it not for the spray which flung steadily up and into her hair, she could have imagined that she had left the human world behind all together to become lost in some ethereal waste.

A compass on the dash of the borrowed boat told the Avatar that her bearing was firm, and despite the fog she trusted her own lore of seamanship to get her to the Fire Nation isles just south-west of the Republic. Someplace in this endless sea-veil would be the bustling island state of Iroh's homeland, but in the interim she was utterly, bleakly alone. Within the expanse of ocean she was faced with nothing but her thoughts... and despite everything that the Avatar had to brood over, all Korra could seem to think about was Asami Sato and what she had almost said aloud to her before she left her office only hours ago.

For weeks she had managed to avoid thinking of Asami. Whenever she came close to really evaluating her relationship with the heiress she had found a distraction in her Avatar duties or in Mako but now she had nothing but herself and the parts of her which demanded answers... and on a small ship in the midst of the vast sea she had no place left to run from them. For the first time in a long time, Korra started to think of not just the questions but the reply as well.

What did she feel towards Asami?

She frowned softly, remembering how Asami had pulled her aside after her dad's trial, and how she had clung to her without hesitation. There was the mental image of Asami smirking slyly at her after winning at that silly carnival game, and then how she had raced ahead of her to get to the whack-a-penguin first and it still made Korra grin to remember the time they had wrecked that moped together on Air Temple Island. She recalled that ugly jealousy that curled in her stomach when Yoalin Mu asked Asami to dinner with him, and the way it used to eat at her when Asami would put her head on Mako's shoulder. The cold truth was simply that despite the situation, despite her anger or fear, Asami had been the one whom she could lean on; the person with whom she could talk her worries through, the one to make her laugh in the end.

So, what did she feel towards Asami?

'I... I still love her,' she responded internally and then she did something unusual for her. "I still love her."

The words fell from her mouth and vanished into the billowing currents behind her, but they had been said aloud and with that she knew that they were true, and then knew many other things were true as well.

She hated herself for how she had broken Asami's heart, and for turning to Mako so quickly in order to not have to face her pain. Asami had been nothing but giving to her, even after she had hurt her... but why?

'Maybe she still cares for me too.'

Was that even possible? Korra had been lousy towards Asami, but could the heiress somehow forgive her?

 _"I'm going to be here for you. I_ am _here for you."_

Asami's promise rang with surprising clarity in her ears as she wondered, and the memory decided something for her. Her jaw set into a determined scowl at the endless waves, her hair whipping violently into the wind as she realized her next answer.

'I'm going to find out.'

Maybe there was still time to make it up to Asami, and Korra realized that she would do anything to figure out a way. When she got back from the Fire Nation, she was going to go to Asami and apologize for everything that had happened, and then she was going to save her company. How, she had no solid idea but if there was something that could be done she would do it... even if it meant a giant billboard in the middle of Ba Sing Se with herself grinning in the cockpit of a Future Industries aeroplane. Sure, Lin Beifong would probably have a thing or two to say about that in terms of her "unbiased integrity" but Beifong had something to say on just about everything Korra did anyway. Using her Avatar celebrity to help sell satomoblies or planes or even clock radios would be worth it if it could help Asami, and prove to her just how much Korra cared.

The Water Tribe girl felt her chest swell in a jittery way, excitement coursing suddenly through her as the speedboat bounced along the whitecaps. She had made a massive mistake, choosing Mako, who thought that it was 'just as hard being the Avatar's boyfriend', but she had learned from her mistake. The firebender wasn't a match for her, and she had known that months ago. It had simply taken her an unfortunate amount of time to be certain. Now, however, she had a plan and that was sure comfort when nothing else in her life made any sense.

Her parents were still fighting or in hiding in the South someplace and imagining them waiting for her threatened to draw out another dangerously volatile emotion, which caused her to briefly wipe at her eyes. So far, all she had done was fail them and the rest of her Tribe, but she wouldn't give up. She'd exhaust every last -

A large shard of ice burst into a spray of water just inches starboard of the speedboat, startling Korra to pull the boat to the opposite side and nearly into another sudden projectile.

"What the fu-" she glowered over her shoulder and was amazed that she hadn't noticed them before. Eska and Desna were riding just on her tail, straddling top-of-the-line wave riders and raining ice bullets down around her. What they were doing trailing her or why her own cousins were attacking her, she had no idea but she didn't bother trying to figure out their insane motives. Korra pulled the boat to a hard right and over her shoulder she flung a stream of water whip, hard enough to slice through both machines. The wave riders splintered into glittering white shards, but her cousins were waterbending masters of their own merit and not so easily stalled.

Both Tribesmen landed on blocks of ice they bent from the open water, propelling towards her in a serpentine pattern that made it difficult to pin one with another whip. While Korra tried to split her attention between keeping her speedboat steady and still dodging Desna's ice bullets, Eska drew up on her left, screeching something at her over the roaring waves about her... wedding? The Northern girl bent a whip of water down on top of the boat, which didn't stand a chance under such a masterful strike.

Korra dove from the wreckage, piercing in an elegant line through the frigid water as if born to it. Blood or not, the twins had officially pissed her off and they had picked a very, very bad night to do it on.

A whirling funnel of water erupted upwards from the waves and atop it stood Korra, wrapped firmly in the support of her element. She grit her teeth as she threw forward bolts of writhing flame, aiming each just a breath in front of her assailants. Two waterbending masters wouldn't be a match for the Avatar, no matter who their father was.

The twins managed to dodge, only barely, and after a look between one another they combined their attacks to throw a surge of seawater at Korra's funnel in attempt to disrupt it. The tactic worked, pushing Korra back into the choppy water but only for an instant. This time, she rose out of the waves with air and water together, bending a cyclone strong enough to encapsulate both Tribesmen. She could see the two struggling within her storm, and knew a harsh satisfaction that they'd tire quickly. The Avatar was almost glad for a chance at real combat, when her body could manage the things which her heart could not.

She was only just beginning to wonder what she was going do with the twins next when, in unison, they abruptly disengaged to drift passively on the currents, their hands lowered.

'They're just giving up...?' She wondered, slowing her funnel as she stared across the water at their diminishing figures, unaware of the presence beneath her until it was too late.

A cacophony of water exploded upwards on either side of Korra suddenly, throwing her off balance and she only barely managed to catch herself in another bent column of water before looking up into the towering, rippling black spirit in front of her. To say it looked like any one creature would have been false, but it reminded her distantly of some arrow-headed worm. From within its angry dark color she could see the pulsing green of its heart, which she registered only a moment before it reached out a tentacle to knock her away with.

Korra's combat intuition reacted for her, bending a burst of air beneath her to keep herself aloft and out of the range of the whip-like strikes as they came repeatedly and without reason.

'It's an angry spirit, Korra, not an enemy' she reminded herself. 'You're the Avatar, you can help it.' She'd never had any luck with spirits in the past, but this was her chance.

With a low, deep breath, Korra righted herself and shifted into her Avatar state: a sense of self and energy which was very nearly addictive in its euphoria. She raised her hands, mimicking the style learned from her uncle, and two twisting streams of water rose from the waves and danced around the angered spirit, bringing with them a calming glow of positive chakra. As the streams encircled the spirit's form, so too did the spirit begin to brighten and calm.

'You're doing it,' she praised silently. 'Just keep it up... don't ruin it like last time. Don't ruin it like you ruin everything else, just keep-' suddenly the light faltered and vanished, and the spirit threw back its diamond-shaped head in a vicious, enraged bellow. In an instant she realized her mistake and it was Korra's instinct to abandon her calm in favor of her power. Her power was what had always sustained her, after all, and she grit her teeth as she reached for a ball of fire to form between her fists.

The fireblast spiraled upwards into the spirit's descending mouth but it was not enough to stop whatever anger the spirit was already fueled by. She gasped to see its green heart-light filling her vision and then Korra was gone.

* * *

Asami was startled awake by some unknown fear, her eyes springing open from a nightmare already forgotten, even if the sense of it still lingered upon her chest. She sat up, slowly, and looked about at the elegant, familiar furnishings which surrounded her. She was in her old bedroom, the same she had slept in as a girl, and the garden lights from the window gave some avenue for the shadows to creep to. Nothing about the pristine, meticulous room was out of place and she realized with a low exhale that it was simply her.

The woman reached and clicked on her bedside lamp, trying to sort through the vague images which had woken her. Some small inner voice wanted to say the name 'Korra' but she wouldn't allow it to. She wasn't going to think about Korra any more, that had been the conclusion she'd come to, and she willfully banished the thought before it could rightly surface.

After a moment she glanced at the empty space in the silken sheets beside her and huffed, rolling her eyes. Asami was used to being a night owl, but these sleepless nights were becoming a bad habit and she was smart enough to realize that it was stress which was keeping her mind whirling when it should have been resting. She'd tried drinking in the evenings to calm herself, which had helped some but not enough; she had attempted to do more vigorous sparring late in the day as a way to simply wear herself out physically; she'd even taken to reading the dullest of poetry before bed just in case it would lull her but nothing seemed to put and keep her asleep. She was now beginning to debate if the next step would be to find a bedmate.

Asami grasped a spare pillow and pulled it to her chest as she lay back down, facing the unused gap of her canopy bed.

She hadn't been intimate with anyone since Korra, and part of her still cringed at the thought of allowing someone else into her bed only to have them spurn her in just a few hours. She'd told Korra that she loved her, something which she never before had fully admitted to, and nothing but solitude had come of it. How was she supposed to simply recover with a new person after such a jarring experience?

However, the other side to that coin would be to end up missing out on someone who actively cared; someone who wanted to know that she would be all right at the end of each day and who would let her share the affection that she knew was hidden away inside of her. Grudgingly, she knew that she did want someone, the complication was in finding the right person. Again that little voice dared to whisper 'Korra' and again she outright refused it.

The engineer rolled to her back, staring at the canopy above her while one hand played in her own black tresses and the other wandered over the smooth fabric of her nightgown. She'd write to Yaolin Mu in the morning, she decided. Perhaps she'd ask him to meet her at Izakaya's on Third after her meeting about this latest shipment to the south. If nothing else, a night out with someone would at least distract her from her worry about her company's' goods out on the open ocean, and maybe at the most she'd find a way to let someone close enough to enjoy.

With a plan in mind, she clicked the light back off but it was a long time before Asami Sato drifted into uneasy sleep.

* * *

The late-night lights of the Republic City docks became a blur as Asami steered the speedboat by, taking turns with a dangerous disregard and leaving little clouds of exhaust in her wake. Mako gripped the sidebar as if for dear blessed life but he made no sound against her steering as they sped for her dockside warehouse and Asami tried to convince herself that the worst hadn't happened.

It had started with her morning meeting the day before, which was when she discovered that Varrick's ship and her entire shipment of mechatanks had been pirated off the southern seas after all. The blow to her barely-standing company was almost too much to handle, but Mako was convinced that there was a way to catch the men who'd robbed her and to get her merchandise returned. With no one else to turn to, and no one else to trust, she'd gone along with the plan of a sting operation using another of Varrick's ships that very night.

The entire venture went belly up in only a few hours after she and Mako learned that the Triads hired to help them (she couldn't believe that she had been willing to trade those thugs her cars ) were already working for someone else and the escape that they had been forced to make was... absolutely exhilarating. She'd almost forgotten how much she enjoyed being a getaway driver when Team Avatar was involved, but no sooner had they made it back to the Republic City harbor however then Asami and Mako both realized the implication of the entire scheme. She'd been drawn away from her warehouses for hours, and she didn't know who else this operation had been paying off. Some wicked intuition told her that the security guards she'd hired would be absent when she pulled into the storage dock.

The speedboat sputtered to a stop as she neared her dock, bumping against the wooden pillars and she was out and up the ladder before even bothering to moor the vehicle down. She rushed the doors and shoved her key into the lock, then grasped the lever switch to push upwards once the door was open to her. There was an electric buzzing, and in rhythm each line of overheads clicked on in a sharp cadence to reveal a barren room. There was no clue that millions in machinery had even existed to begin with.

"Oh man," Mako groaned softly from behind her. "They took everything."

"...That's it," she said in a flimsy voice, slumping back on her heels. "My company's finished."

She'd been so careful, and had tried so hard, but after all of her best effort she really must have been naive to think that a girl could run something like Future Industries. Why had she been so stubborn to think that she could actually have made something of her father's company to begin with?

Mako was still talking. "We need to hurry to check the other warehouses, in case they haven't had time to hit those yet," he was saying, glaring around them with that hawkish expression which was his trademark.

Asami shook her head, wanting him to quit whatever hero game he was trying at now. "No. Everything I had was in here. This was it."

"Well, then I'll start a perimeter for evidence. All we need is a lead and-"

"Mako, just stop," she cringed. "It doesn't matter any more. I give up."

She wanted to withdraw; to leave him, the warehouse, the company, even Republic City. She was just so tired.

"Well, I'm not giving up on you," he stated with his determined frown, leaving no room for doubt and she blinked back at him, vaguely stunned by the emotion suddenly coursing through her. All of this time she had been trying so very hard to shoulder the weight of the responsibilities left to her on her own, hiding her fears from her employees and forcing her way into the good graces of other corporate equals but in all of that time no one had ever tried to shoulder her. No one had checked if she was still standing but on the cusp of feeling her feet finally give way beneath her, Mako refused to let her go quietly. She had so badly needed someone, anyone, to reach out a hand and now that someone finally had she felt all of her fear and loneliness of the past six months welling to the breaking point.

Asami Sato was a woman who debated her every decision with calm collectivity; a person who wanted to quantify emotions and balance ideologies but after so much so quickly she was overwhelmed by the empathy in another person and her reaction was neither intellectual nor deliberate, but simply emotional. She pressed against Mako, needing the contact of someone, and her lips caught his with pleasant familiarity. She held to him for only seconds, but by the time they broke apart she had already recovered from her moment of need.

"I'm sorry," she shuddered, feeling ashamed at once. She shouldn't have done that: Mako was just being a good friend to her and her response had been to take something which wasn't even his to give. He had only just told her about his breakup with Korra, which had explained many things, and Korra had only just left on her mission while Asami was standing her taking advantage of them both. She reprimanded herself immediately for her actions but the kiss had only opened something in her breast which appealed gently for more.

"No," he corrected awkwardly, not quite meeting her eyes. He cleared his throat and gave her a the ghost of a reassuring smile. "It's okay."

She couldn't' quite bring herself to return the sentiment, but she didn't attempt to fight it either as she started to realize that whatever had just happened was going to have a consequence, one way or another. Was it really okay? Or had she just pushed him away after all?

"I'm going to figure out who did this, Asami," he stated, firm enough to pull her from her worrying and abruptly she recalled Mako holding her in a carriage in Republic City park, stoic and safe. "I think I know where to start, too."

"Well," she wet her lips, brushing a pearl of wet from her eyes as she attempted to ignore the defeat weighing so obviously around her. What was it she had told the Avatar, just days ago? 'Now you just have to not give up.' "Let me know what you need from me. I'll go ahead and report this to Lin and see if I can salvage anything in an insurance report."

Yes, that made sense. She just needed a course of action: contact the police and salvage what she could in the meantime. No need to crumble, not tonight. Giving in wouldn't prove to Hiroshi that she didn't need him, and it wouldn't prove to Korra that she was just as strong without her. She could figure this out, but she was still amazed by the difference it made for her to have Mako at her side for it.

He gave her his small, taut smile and gripped her hand but she forced herself to swallow back any lingering outburst, and simply squeezed his back. It was just nice to have someone care.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Even as the fic writer, this chapter was hard to get through. However, I felt it was important to expound on Asami's thoughts while she dealt with this very challenging part of her life and to not go deeper into her perception of events would have been a lost opportunity. Still though, its hard to see her with Mako._

 _Next time, things... don't get much better._


	5. Chapter 5

The gentle clicking of her heels on the concrete floor heralded Asami's arrival as she entered the studio, a hand looped around her satchel so as to have a distraction to stop her from crossing her arms. Holding her arms to herself had begun as a habit after her mother passed away, and Hiroshi had been sympathetic at first but when she started etiquette classes the mannerism had been scolded out of her by merciless school-mistresses. Proper ladies did not touch themselves at all in public, and while she understood the premise in a social sense, her childhood quirk quickly resurfaced in times of stress.

The studio set was a bit grander than usual this visit, designed to resemble the vaults of the Southern Water Tribe palace with a half-naked Nuktuk wrestling a large puppet snake to the floor. Two men pushed and pulled at the snake's strings just off camera in order to create some illusion of a clash between man and beast but Asami thought that even a living giant serpent wouldn't have brought any more realism to the scene. Seeing Bolin roll around on the studio floor with a massive toy actually brought a chuckle to her, and she had to cut it quickly before anyone asked her to leave. Fortunately, the director called 'cut' after a few more robust shows of masculine grace and the puppeteers abandoned their post, leaving Bolin still half under the prop.

"H-hey, guys?" He asked, looking around him in confusion at the milling crew which had forgotten him, but his green gaze found Asami and he smiled widely up at her. "Oh, hey Asami. Can you help me out here?"

"Sure," she agreed with a chuckle and walked over to help push the snake away. "I don't remember seeing any giant snakes in the South Pole, you know," she pointed out as he got to his feet.

"Well, no, me neither," he agreed as he attempted to re-curl his black forelock. "But Varrick says that's part of the magic of movers, you can make them into whatever you want."

She looked down at his humiliatingly revealing outfit of leather and fur, and then lifted a sympathetic glance to his. "Yeah, I guess so. Um, you said you wanted to give me my ticket for the premier tonight?"

It was finally time to air the Nuktuk mover, and despite having seen some of the minor episodes as well as the original filming, Asami was looking forward to the event. It'd be nice to have a reason to dress up and it would be something to distract her from everything wrong, strange, or simply uncomfortable in her life just then.

"Oh, right," Bolin turned to a pile of gym bags in the studio corner and began to fish around in one in particular. "Hey, so I know it's a little weird but do you want to go visit Mako in jail with me? I'm heading over there before the premier and I'm sure he'd like to see you since... you know. You two are back together."

"We're not back together," she corrected quickly. She wasn't really sure how or even if she wanted to define her present relationship with Mako, but she was pretty certain that they were not formally 'back together'. Sure, she had relented to some emotional need at first, but after taking a bit of time to step back and think she had decided that if Korra didn't want either of them then maybe they could give each other a second chance. She had always enjoyed being with Mako, after all, and having someone to turn to had been a pleasant change in her day to day. But then Mako had been arrested.

She sighed, looking away and resisting the urge to put her arms around her chest again. "And, I don't think that I can go with you. I think that seeing Mako in jail that way will remind me too much of having to see my dad in prison." She looked away, feeling an aching guilt. She wanted to be there for Mako, really, but she knew her own limitations and everything about that jail cell caused her stomach to twist and groan with discomfort. "I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's fine. Really," he waved away her apology, standing up. "I didn't even think about that. I shouldn't' have asked."

She shook her head. "You're just being a good brother. And I'm glad; Mako really needs you."

He snorted softly and crossed his arms, scuffing his toes on the fake set snow. "Yeah... I feel like maybe I let him down. I mean, he asked for my help with that sting operation and maybe if I had gone with you guys then those Triads never would have gotten involved after all."

Her brow kneaded softly together. "So, you don't think he was working with the Triads the whole time?" That had been the accusation on the part of the Republic City police: Mako, as a former runner for the Triad gang, had reverted to old habits and helped his gang steal from the Sato warehouses.

"Mako? Of course not! Wait," his heavy set brow came together in a dark line. "You don't think he was, do you?"

She scoffed. "Not for a second. Mako's one of the worst liars I've ever met. If he says he was set up, then he was. I just wish that there was a way we could help him... but now with my warehouse cleared out it's all I can do to help myself."

"Yeah, I know..." he sighed, bulky shoulders slumping. "I sure wish Korra was around. If she was, she'd go crashing in there to get him out."

Asami tilted her head at him. "Don't you remember the last time she did that? She pissed off the wrong guy and wound up in a box for a day. I'm almost glad she isn't here because at least I know she's not doing something dangerous."

"Yeah, I guess that's a good point," he muttered. "Have you thought about what you're going to tell her when she comes back?"

She'd thought about that a lot, in fact. A lot more than she cared to admit. "Yes... but I still don't know what I'll say."

"Well, Korra's a reasonable person. Maybe she won't care that you're dating her ex boyfriend." He suggested with a falsely hopeful expression. They both knew that Korra was rarely reasonable.

Asami rolled her eyes. "Bolin, we aren't dating. We've just... been spending a lot of time together." She was beginning to feel exasperated with his insistence, and doubly so since she knew her annoyance had just as much to do with herself as him. She tucked the ticket he'd given her into her bag and began to pull on a pair of charcoal-leather gloves, signaling her intent to leave. "I'll see you tonight at the premier, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." He nodded, kicking morosely at the fake snake. She paused and gave her friend a wry glance.

"Try to cheer up, it's going to be a lot of fun. You're a star all over again, remember?"

He did brighten a little at that and struck a pose, hands on his hips and abdomen flexing. "You're right; tonight the world falls in love with Nuktuk, Hero of the South!"

"Right," she conceded, helpfully, and turned to leave the hero to his invaluable work of giant serpent wrestling.

* * *

Sometimes Asami wondered why she even bothered with Republic City events, especially anything held at the ProBending Arena. This was officially her second terrorist attack at the stadium, and while it wasn't quite as violent as the first she did think it equally as dramatic, and just as frustrating. She was determined to start carrying a chi-blocker in her purse at all times in the future, rather than have to sit through another event where she had to watch one of her friends struggle without her help.

Bolin had been the true hero of the night, without a doubt, and in a way it had really swelled her with pride for his sake... but in another she had just been furious that he was fighting alone, without her, Korra, or his own brother. And then, the Avatar had swooped abruptly back into their lives, as strong and determined as ever and even something more.

Asami could immediately tell that something had happened to Korra while she was away, and she almost managed to convince herself that it was apprehension and not glee which washed through her when she saw the Water Tribe girl leap off the Sky Bison in a graceful motion.

"President Raiko," Korra greeted, striding firmly towards them where they were gathered among the photographers outside of the arena. She didn't even spare a glance at Asami. "I have to speak with you immediately."

"Now is not a good time, Avatar Korra," he responded stiffly, only halfway turning to meet her. Asami wondered if he was actually intimidated by the girl. "My wife and I have just been through an ordeal and I have some men who need to be questioned."

"What happened?" She asked, regarding the rest of the group and only then did she catch Asami's eye but her gaze continued on without pause. Whatever was going through Korra's mind wasn't something she'd be distracted from any time soon. Tenzin quickly joined her, and the rest of Aang's family could be seen on top of Oogie's saddle.

Bolin pushed forward some, his evening tux in tatters and his arms dusted and scraped. He jabbed an enthusiastic thumb at his chest. "I saved the president from a bunch of Northern Water Tribers!"

"Wow, nice going, Bolin," she smirked at him for a moment, not appearing too shocked by the information, but her expression quickly became stern again as she looked back at Raiko. "Mister President, I realize you have problems here in Republic City but those problems are about to get a lot worse. I've just come from the Fire Nation and I have information that Chief Unalaq is going to use Harmonic Convergence to release an evil spirit into the world through the southern portal. If that happens, nothing's going to be able to stop him. I know I've asked for your help before but this is different. If we do nothing, then no one is going to be safe. Not even the Republic."

Asami blinked, attempting to decipher what she had just heard. For starters, what on earth was 'Harmonic Convergence' and what was this spirit...? Suddenly Future Industries and her situation with Mako seemed very insignificant.

Raiko was still for several moments, simply staring blankly back at Korra, and then he huffed lowly. "I'm sorry, Avatar Korra, but if what you say is true then I'll need my entire forces here to protect my country."

Asami felt her cheeks drain from shock as she looked from Korra to the president. Her president. The Avatar herself had just come to request his help in fighting back a world-wide threat and he was going to simply ignore her plea?

Korra however was much more vocal in her disbelief. "You cant be serious! If you don't help me, your entire country could die! Everyone here is in danger!"

He lifted his chin. "Which is exactly why everyone here needs the protection of the entire United Forces. You'll have to find your reinforcements elsewhere, Avatar."

Asami could hardly believe what she was hearing, but while Bolin attempted to use his recent status as 'hero' to assuage Raiko, she approached Korra.

"I'll help however I can," she stated simply.

For the first time that evening Korra looked directly at her and smiled her hard smile, which was so strangely gratifying. "Thanks, Asami."

Bolin joined them, huffing. "Me too. Whatever you need, I'm your guy, Korra."

"Good. I know I can always count you guys, but... where's Mako?"

The name suddenly reminded Asami of what had happened that night, and how there was official proof now that Varrick had been behind the recent attacks against the Southern Water Tribe cultural center and her warehouses as well... leaving Mako exonerated. She and Bolin shared a look and Korra frowned.

"What is it... did something happen?"

"Well," Bolin started, putting a hand on her shoulder to lead them all back to Oogie where he was yawning hugely on the pier steps. "Don't get mad..."

* * *

They waited for Mako in the police headquarters atrium while Bolin went to fetch his brother, and Asami was a little surprised that Korra had taken a spot directly next to her. The Water Tribe girl had her arms crossed, staring pensively ahead of her... always ahead of her. Asami reflected that Korra was a woman who hardly ever looked back.

She, on the other hand, couldn't seem to stop. She had known that Korra was going to come back to Republic City at some point and that she would have to learn about her and Mako. She'd been aware of that inevitability ever since she and Mako had become close again, but she still wasn't sure how to broach the subject with the girl and now that Korra was standing directly beside her she realized that she was out of time to figure that out. Korra was going to learn about what had happened, one way or another.

"Korra," she started in a low voice, not wanting the airbenders, police officers, or anyone else to overhear. "I think there's something that we should talk about."

The Avatar gave her half her attention, looking perplexed back at her. "Okay..." she frowned softly. "This isn't about... us, is it?"

Asami's narrow eyebrows peaked as she looked back at her, feeling taken aback. 'Us'? What 'us'? Did she mean something to do with the vague fluster that had come over her in Asami's office that night over a week ago?

"No. Well," she paused. She didn't really want to believe that her seeing Mako had anything to do with her relationship with Korra. "I mean sort of I guess,"

"Listen, I'm really sorry that I got so weird about you and that Yoalin guy."

"...Oh." Yaolin Mu? That seemed a bit out of the blue.

Korra sighed, slouching in a way that told Asami she was uncomfortable. "That Mister Mu, I'm sorry that I got so worked up over that. I shouldn't have been prying into your life." She looked properly over her shoulder at Asami and her expression shifted. "That's not what you were talking about, was it." She guessed.

The heiress felt confused this time, wondering why Korra was recalling that detail instead of the way that she had stomped into her office like a wet cat-owl, or the odd tension which that meeting had left between them. Perhaps Asami had simply interpreted that night differently than Korra but it had felt like the closest they had ever been to a fight.

"No, but I'll accept the apology anyway," she smiled, teasing, and then grew serious again. "It's actually about something that happened while you were away. I don't really know how to explain it but-"

"Hey," she grabbed Asami's forearm suddenly to pause her trail of thought, but the Avatar wasn't looking at her. Her gaze was fixed, along with everyone else's, on the opposite end of the room where Bolin and Mako appeared from a hall. The firebender was dressed just how Asami had seen him last, in house pants and a frayed undershirt, and appeared rather flustered. He was looking around at the assembled group, and someone began to clap suddenly.

Asami considered the fact that Mako had successfully followed a trail of clues to a serious perpetrator, ignoring the obvious and focusing on the unlikely, and then been wrongly imprisoned as punishment for his hard work; she decided that he did in fact deserve a round of applause and joined in on the clapping with a small smirk at his obvious discomfort. Beifong approached him and she heard the police chief give Mako a promotion to detective and her smirk shifted into a full smile for him. She knew how badly Mako wanted to make detective, and he absolutely was the man for the job. She was actually pretty proud of him and was about to go and tell him so when Korra suddenly left her side and rushed at Mako. For a moment, Asami was actually afraid that Korra would tell Mako off in front of everyone but her fear was needless and quickly replaced by a much worse emotion when the girl wrapped her arms around Mako's neck and pressed her mouth to his.

The room went very still, but for the abrupt hammering in Asami's ears.

"I'm so glad to see you!" Korra exclaimed as she pulled from him and from where she stood, Asami could see how Mako's boy-brain was racing.

"I'm glad to see you too," he said after a moment. "Are you not mad at me anymore?"

"Mad?" She repeated, tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, we... had that big fight. Remember?"

"Oh..." she relaxed back on her heels and looked away some. "No, not really. I was attacked by an angry spirit out on the ocean. I actually lost my memory for a little bit and I guess I don't have it all back." She looked back up at him while Asami was mentally fitting pieces together. "Was it a really bad fight?"

Asami held her breath, but she knew what Mako was going to say before he did.

"No..." he trailed after another minute and the heiress exhaled, snorting quietly as she glowered and then turned from the scene. In some piteous way, she wasn't even surprised. Mako had let her down before, and so had Korra. It all made perfect sense that the two of them would just continue to do so and she came to a silent conclusion: she was done with the both of them. She had already promised to help Korra in this fight with Unalaq, and she would see that through because it was something which genuinely mattered. After this battle however, she was done with the Avatar and her ignoble boyfriend. If the only person in the world whom she could trust was herself, then so be it.

* * *

Korra and Mako were leaning against the steel railing of the upper deck as the ship, one of Varrick's seemingly endless fleet, worked its way southward. It seemed to her that she'd made this trip a half dozen times in the last fortnight and the constant travel would have started to wear on her if Korra didn't actually love it. Nothing about Korra was stagnant, and very little of her was interested in pursuit of personal stability. She'd spent too much of her life in one place and was eager to cross every mile of the world before her time as Avatar was over.

Mako, however, did not seem as comfortable. His arm around her was rigid, his gaze lowered, and for such a quiet man he had been downright silent ever since they had left Republic City. She could tell that something was bothering him, but if he wasn't going to vocalize it then it would simply have to wait until after Harmonic Convergence. She didn't have the time or attention to deal with Mako's angst now.

"I think I'll go check on the bridge," she said a bit abruptly, turning to look at him. It was cold this late at night on the deck and Mako wasn't exactly being warm. She'd come out there in the first place to think through the things she'd seen in her vision of her past life and how to use the knowledge of the first Avatar in her fight against Unalaq but with Mako brooding so awkwardly the deck was loosing its tranquil charm.

"You're going to check the incoming again?"

She shrugged, guiltily. "We're closer, we may have picked up something by now."

"Korra," he started in his warning tone. "We're two hours closer. Someone will let us know if a transmission comes in."

"Yeah, well..." she didn't finish her sentence, not wanting to throw in his face that if it was his family's safety at risk then he'd be anxiously watching the wireless along with her. If she couldn't meditate on Unalaq and she couldn't do her exercises, she might as well check the transmission. Idleness never put her at ease. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay," he shrugged back, brow furrowed and for a moment she thought that he was going to say something else but he just turned back to glare at the open sea and she left him there to his brooding while she turned upstairs towards the bridge. A helmsman was on deck, and he nodded at her as she walked by him to the radio office off the hall. The door was open by a sliver and she paused to see that it was Asami sitting in the low-backed chair, a pair of circular speakers on her head and a notebook in her lap. She was doodling in slow lines on the paper, listlessly, though every now and again she'd reach for the knob on the wireless device and make a half-inch turn in one direction or another. Finally she sighed and pulled the headset down around her neck where it was buried by her black hair.

"Oh," she gasped, noticing Korra leaning on the door frame as she did so.

Korra hadn't meant to stare, but she realized that that was exactly what she had been doing and for more than a minute now; she started to blush. The Avatar shifted into the room and scratched at her hair to try and play off the fact that she'd been admiring Asami without the other woman noticing.

"Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt. I didn't know you were up here."

"You're not interrupting," Asami answered casually and looked back at her pad, causing Korra's brows to knead softly together. That made two people aboard who were being distant towards her and she didn't understand why. "I haven't heard anything from Harbor City, if that's what you were going to ask."

"Hmm," she responded and leaned against the wall opposite Asami, her hands behind her back as she looked at the copper-plated wires which crossed the room and vanished through hatchways. Oddly, thoughts of Harbor City were dimming with Asami in the room. She couldn't help the feeling that there was something important which she had to say to the engineer, but she couldn't' quite recall what it was. "Actually, can I ask you about something else?"

Asami glanced up at her and Korra could feel her expectant gaze even as she followed the room's mechanical lines with her eyes. "You know my memory kind of slipped after that attack... but I keep getting the feeling that you and I... well like we had a fight." It was true for her and Mako, apparently. Perhaps that was why Asami seemed so on-edge around her ever since she'd gotten back. She finally looked back at Asami to gauge her reaction but the heiress actually appeared genuinely surprised.

"Oh, Korra," she started and then sighed. "No," she decided and leaned back into her chair, relaxing slightly. "We didn't have a fight... but I was a little upset at you when you left."

Korra felt her cheeks grow warmer. If she had managed to upset Asami, who was such a remarkably even-tempered person, then she knew she must have really messed up. Unfortunately, not being able to remember what it was she had done just added fuel to her coiling guilt.

"What did I do?" She asked glumly, not quite meeting Asami's eye.

The heiress shook her head. "Sweeth-" she stopped herself and Korra couldn't believe how even half a word had sunk so heavily into her stomach, expanding and filling her with an excited anxiousness. She didn't dare look at Asami now, not wanting to embarrass her for using a petname which at one time had warmed her in such wonderful ways and that, even now, caused her to bite back a smile. Asami continued as if nothing had slipped, however. "Korra, you didn't do anything. You were only being the Avatar and I was only being... selfish. I know that you have a job to do. I just..." she stopped and combed a hand through her hair. Korra wondered if the motion was intentional, seeing as how it almost dragged her across the room to the engineer.

Distracted, she wondered at where all of this intense heat towards Asami was coming from. She was beginning to feel nervous and giddy the way she had months ago when she'd first started to realize how attracted she was to Asami in the first place. She thought that she was past all of that, especially since she was with Mako but when it was just the two of them this way it was as if she were that same nervous girl all over again. It was a sensation that seemed to only get worse with time.

Asami, meanwhile, seemed to figure out what it was she wanting to say. "I just got used to having you around, I guess."

Korra swallowed, looking at her through her bangs. "Me too. Actually," she moved from the wall, standing more firmly on her booted feet. "I'm really glad that we can be friends again. I missed you and..." why was she so hot all of a sudden? It was almost painful how slowly her words were coming out now, but they were genuine and it seemed that if she could simply say them then she'd feel some relief against this awkward burning in her gut. "And I want you in my life."

The engineer's eyebrows threaded together, stunned and oddly sympathetic as she chewed at her delicate lip, but then she straightened and laced her fingers in front of her in a way which Korra thought was unusually business like.

"I want that too, Korra, but I can't," she stated in a quiet voice. "You, Mako, and me, it's just too much. I'm sorry. I wan't to be there for you, I really do and maybe one day I can be but not now." She paused, swallowing. "I'm going to see this fight through with you, and everyone else, but when you win and I know that you will, you and I are going to have to go our separate ways for a while."

The heat which had been strumming through her suddenly dissipated. This new feeling, curling grossly in its place, was completely different and far more awful. She thought that they were becoming closer but Asami only wanted to distance them all over again. She wanted distance from her. Somehow, it was all reminiscent of that awful afternoon when she'd pushed Asami away, only this time she was the one left stunned.

She didn't say a word in response, she just bowed her head and walked past Asami but it wasn't her typical angry stomping. She wasn't angry at all, really. Just terribly, terribly sorry.

"Korra," Asami called plaintively as she swiveled in her chair and the Avatar paused at the door.

"It's okay," she responded over her shoulder. "Really."

It wasn't, but for some reason Korra didn't want to tell her that. She didn't remember how she had childishly kicked Mako's desk across the room and berated him in front of his coworkers, but some inkling hint of self-reprimand did manage to remind her that Asami had left her with dignity even after Korra had been so astoundingly cruel to her. She wanted to be able to be that respectful too, at least for her sake. She walked out of the bridge and back into the frigid southern night to look homeward, willing herself there with all of her Avatar might.


	6. Chapter 6

She wasn't certain what she had been expecting at the southern spirit portal, but the tangled nest of frozen trees surrounded by an entire encampment of Northern Water Tribe troops wasn't part of Asami's original vision. Bolin had warned her that there would be a forest, but hearing of it and then seeing it grow incomprehensibly out of the ice were two different things. Despite the hazardousness of their situation, having only just escaped from Unalaq's tent and mowed down the majority of the camp, she was tempted by the surreal splendor of the copse to stand and admire the way ice glittered like jewelry along the boughs, or the warm pulsing glow of the portal which erupted like a spire of spiritual energy in the midst of the petrified wood. Asami thought that she had done some incredible things in the company of the Avatar, but this was far and away the most awing.

Team Avatar, reinforced by Avatar Aang's sons and daughter along with an injured Tonraq, stared at the pillar of the portal and then around themselves for any sign of Chief Unalaq or his minions but they seemed momentarily alone. The illusion did nothing to still the sense of urgency coursing through them all while Harmonic Convergence, the celestial occurrence which would pump an eon's worth of spiritual energy into the portal, was only minutes away.

"Asami," Korra grunted and strode towards her, half supporting her dad on her shoulder. The Avatar's hair was disarrayed and a variety of scrapes covered her chin and cheeks but she was nowhere near as badly maimed as her father, who only barely opened one eye to look around himself. Tonraq had been fighting hard for days, and it looked like he'd lost the last few fights. "Asami I need you to take my dad to Katara, on Oogie."

"No, I'm not leaving you," Tonraq protested immediately but Korra gave him a surprisingly patient smile.

"Dad, you've fought enough, and I've got Tenzin and everyone else to help me." She looked back at Asami, who realized that Tonraq had simply beaten her to that exact same protest.

"Okay," she agreed quickly, not wanting to waste time. She put an arm under Tonraq to help support him as she led him to the sky bison, Korra on her heels.

"I'll come right back once he's safe," she promised as she helped the warrior to grasp the saddle lines.

"No," came the decisive reply and she looked over at the Avatar, who was giving her a stern frown. "I need you to stay at the compound."

"Korra, I can help."

"You are helping. If things go wrong, I need the people I love to be safe and the compound is the safest place this close by. I need you to look out for my parents, and Jinora." She looked away a moment and the light of the spirit world framed the Avatar's determined frown. "I need you to be someplace safe this time."

She was speechless, and all she could do for several breaths was to stare back at Korra with Oogie's reins in her hands. It was such a tender thought, one which she hadn't expected from Korra of all people, and suddenly she knew that arguing would do more harm than good. The Avatar needed to focus on this hurdle and if Asami was in the way at all then she might as well be fighting against her. Her mouth turned into a stoic line and she nodded, then mounted to straddle Oogie's massive neck. She had enough time to give Korra one last hope-filled look, wanting so badly to give her all the support which she would need in this trial, but Korra just waved at her as if they were parting ways for a brief holiday. She had her Korra-confident smirk in place and in all respects appeared as if she were just out to punch some miscreant in the face. Nothing to worry about here: she had everything under control.

"Yip yip, Oogie," Asami commanded with a flick of the reins, something she'd seen Tenzin do countless times. She'd never driven Oogie herself, but the sky bison needed few instructions. He made a soft growling high in his throat and lifted up off the snow, and Asami turned them north in the direction of the compound while the Avatar and her friends became dots among the frozen spirit forest. Asami held the Water Tribe girl's gaze as long as she was able, but she had no way of knowing if Korra could tell how badly she wanted to be on the ground at her side.

* * *

The vaulted chamber of the Harbor City capitol building was strangely empty as Korra marched through it, her attention fixated on the archway of early morning light ahead of her and what she knew would be thousands of Tribesmen awaiting her appearance. She didn't really like giving public speeches, but after everything which she had just been through she found herself oddly at ease with the thought of what was essentially talking to a bunch of people at once. What was the worse that they could do? Grow a hundred feet tall and break her bond to her past lives? No, only one entity could accomplish something like that, and it had already been done. Compared to her contest with Unalaq, nothing seemed so frightening.

She heard footsteps over her shoulder, heavy but quick, and recognized them as Mako's.

"Hey," he called as he slowed to approach her. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," she agreed, turning to look at him. She wasn't feeling very rushed to go and make her speech, and as she was adjusting from a frame of mind which was monopolized with worry for the world she was beginning to recall more normal things, like the fact that Mako had been distant prior to the battle.

"There's something I need to tell you about that fight we had, before you went to the Fire Nation. I said it wasn't that bad but that's not really true. We um," his gaze faltered under the tension for a moment before he lifted his amber eyes to hers again. "I broke up with you."

She sighed, shoulders and gaze falling. "I know." She felt so humiliated.

Mako puzzled at her. "I thought you lost parts of your memory."

"I did, but when I was inside the Tree of Time all of it came back, in pieces at first but now..." she trailed, having difficulty explaining what it was her brain had been going through over the last few days. Not that it really mattered in this moment. "I'm sorry I blew up at you like that, and in front of all those people." She was glad that Mako had approached her and saved her the struggle of coming to him with her apology. After her memories began to return she realized how out of order she had been with him, and she really couldn't blame him for his reaction.

Mako's expression softened and he reached for her hand. "That's okay. I'm pretty sure we both said things that we regret."

She looked at his hand around hers, and a brief wave of curiosity occurred to her. "Why didn't you tell me the truth when I asked you?"

"I knew that's what I was supposed to do, but it was bad enough hurting you once. I didn't want to do that all over again. And, I guess part of me wanted to pretend it never happened anyway."

"But it did happen," she insisted levelly. " And I think we both know that this, us, isn't a good fit." She'd known that for such a long time now, why did she let it last this long? They argued more often than they talked, they couldn't connect physically or idealistically, and she doubted how long her heart had really been in it at all.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he nodded somberly and she realized that she would have to take charge, the same way she always did with Mako.

"We're ending it. For real this time." Korra stated firmly, leaving no room for doubt. Hearing her words brought to mind another, far more wrenching, breakup and not wanting to do to him what she'd done to Asami she leaned up on her toes to give him a last farewell kiss.

When she released him, he leaned his forehead to hers, eyes shut. "I'm always going to love you Korra."

"Me too."

Now that they were finished, really finished, she realized an unexpected relief. She was sad, as well, but she knew in an instant that this was what was best for the both of them, and for their friendship. He would always be her teammate, or so she hoped, but theirs was a relationship not meant to be muddled with such serious emotions.

Korra turned to go and meet Harbor City, one last Avatar duty for the day, but she felt calm as she approached the podium and the courtyard full of eager faces. She could do this. She'd already dealt with so much worse.

* * *

Korra withdrew from the stage and Tonraq took her place, addressing his people for the first time as their newly elected Chief. Her cousins would go on to rule in the North, but the South was now and forever more an independent state and Korra couldn't be more proud of her father. It was almost too much to take in at once: Unalaq becoming a Dark Avatar, Vaatu ascending, the spirit portals being opened to the world and now the South an independent nation with her own father as Chief. It was difficult to imagine that a year ago she had actually been bored in the seclusion of the compound.

"Korra!" Bolin grabbed her attention, sweeping her up into a very enthusiastic and unexpected hug. "Can you believe it?" He asked, putting her back down in just as easy a motion as he did a little pirouette. "We actually did it! We're amazing! We saved the South! Well, mostly you saved the South but I was totally there the whole time."

"Yeah," she laughed, regaining her balance. They were still at the edge of the Capitol steps and in plain view of most of the courtyard. "You totally were. I couldn't have done it without you and your brother, you know."

"Aw," he rolled his eyes, blushing some. "That's what Team Avatar's for, right?"

"Right," she agreed with another laugh, looking around behind him and noticing something missing for the first time since they landed in Harbor City early that morning. "Bolin, where's Asami?"

"Oh, she went down to the docks to get her ship. I guess she had some stuff to get back to in Republic City. She told me she already said her goodbye to you."

Korra's eyes widened and she felt her heart miss a beat. "Oh no," she muttered and turned to look across the incline of the city towards the infamous harbor, scanning the bay as if she could spot Asami's yacht from even such a distance. Without explaining herself, she took off at a run down the iced steps and into the crowd, which parted easily for the Avatar. Naga was looking alert at her from the edge of the courtyard and Korra clambered easily up her back, grabbing fistfuls of the polabear dog's mane.

"We gotta go girl," she urged and squeezed her heels. Thrilled at the prospect of a good run, Naga turned and loped for the exit to spill into the slushy streets.

'C'mon, don't let her get away,' Korra berated herself as they ran, moving full tilt down the city streets. She wished, fervently, that she had one of the staffs which the Airbenders used to get around so easily and decided to ask Tenzin for one as soon as they were on Air Temple Island. By now, she had no idea how long Asami had been at the docks or even if her ship was still moored down. She simply had to get to her before she left.

Despite her battle with Vaatu and Unalaq, Korra was surprisingly energized and she was aware that it was the pulsing euphoric remnants of her spiritual self which still kept her going, and perhaps her determination to see Asami. She now knew with her returned memories just how badly she had messed up with the engineer, but she wasn't going to give in. Not yet.

Naga tore into the harbor, tongue hanging loosely, and Korra cast her blue gaze around her for a sign of Asami's ship but nothing stood out. She recalled that she and the bending brothers had found her near the noodle shop on the corner and hurried in that direction and then down a long dock-way only to find an empty mooring. Her heart fell for an instant but when she looked out into the bay she could just see the white edge of Asami's yacht as it neared the inlet's edge.

Without pause, Korra slipped from Naga and ran for the edge of the dock and leaped into the water, diving in a perfected arch and then rotating her arms around her to take hold of her element to bend herself through the water like a missile. She sped through the bay, passing surprised schools of lazy haddock, and when she was finally at her lungs' limit she surfaced for air and saw the ship some thirty yards distant still.

"Asami!" She shouted, bobbing in the freezing waves. "Asami Sato!"

A deckhand caught sight of her and pointed to someone else on board, and after a moment she thought that she saw the heiress's tall figure appear on deck. Korra took a breath and then dove again, moving effortlessly through the slow current. When she could see the bulge of the ship's hull in front of her she twisted a spiral of water beneath her and propelled herself upwards, shooting from the water to land on the deck in a dripping, freezing confusion of Avatar. Asami was posed in front of her, gaping at her in some surprise while the Water Tribe girl flung out a hand to bend the arctic droplets off of her and overboard.

"H-hey," she sighed, finally standing across from the other woman.

"What's wrong?" Asami asked immediately, brow worried.

"What?" It dawned on her that it was probably a bit alarming when the Avatar appeared suddenly on your ship, dripping wet and in a hurry. "Nothing," she assured, waving her hands. "Everything's fine. I just, I mean I needed to... I wanted to tell you..." she cleared her throat while she tried to figure out exactly what it was she wanted to say. Her goal had been to get to Asami before she left for Republic City, but now that she had caught up to her she realized that that was about where her plan ended. She'd already been rejected earlier by Asami, was she really willing to put her feelings for the other woman on the line all over again?

The heiress was studying her, obviously confused, but the way her cheeks pinked from the cold wind only seemed to intensify the jade of her eyes and Korra found the words falling out of her mouth before she even registered them.

"I wanted to tell you that you were right. I was afraid, after I lost my bending. I was afraid of what everyone would think of me and I was afraid of what I thought of myself. I know that was awful of me but I felt like everything I knew about me was just gone suddenly and I was terrified. But... this morning when I was looking at the spirit portal I realized that I wanted to do what I thought the right thing was, instead of what everyone told me the right thing was. And... if I was brave enough to change ten-thousand years of tradition then I think I'm brave enough to actually be with the person I love."

She caught her breath and swallowed, forcing herself to look directly at Asami. "I'm sorry I was a coward, and I'm sorry about everything that happened with Mako. I want you to know that all of that's over now. I..." she cleared her throat again and her voice started to quiet. "I'll do anything I have to to earn back your trust. If, you know, you'll let me."

It felt like the most she had ever spoken at one time and she didn't know if it was the jog, the swim across the bay or simply putting all of her heart out on display that way but she was suddenly very, very tired. Her shoulders slumped some as she waited for Asami's response, since throughout her speech the heiress had made no expression or sound. She was quiet for so long in fact that Korra haltingly realized that she'd made a mistake. She'd waited too long, and Asami had moved on and now she was standing on the woman's boat in the middle of the water blabbering about how she lo-

The heiress's mouth shifted slowly into a small, secret smirk. It was the smile of a woman who knew oh-so-many secrets and wasn't giving away a single clue. It caused Korra's mind to blank as her heart thundered away in her temples.

"...Mitsuwa's, on Capital Street. Friday night, eight o'clock." She responded carefully, that signature smirk tugging at the corner of her painted mouth.

Korra blinked, her brain racing to translate what was said versus what she'd expected and then it came together in another gratifying instant. "All right," she smiled fiercely. "It's a date."

Both women grinned at one another in silence, the wind picking up at their hair and clothes but they were simultaneously oblivious as their attention focused entirely on each other.

"All right," Korra repeated with a giddy chuckle a moment later and took a step back from Asami. She felt such a sudden coursing of excitement that she was actually thankful to have such a long swim back to the city.

"All right," Asami returned and arched a brow at her, as if to ask what Korra was still doing gawking at her.

The Water Tribe girl cut another laugh and turned to swing a leg over the edge of the railing. Korra gave Asami one last hard, glee-filled look and Asami just continued to grin back at her. She wanted to say something else, to do something else but she resisted the urge to spoil the moment. They would have plenty of time on their date, after all.

The Avatar jerked her attention back to the water and leapt easily into it, plummeting into the cold waves with an elation she hadn't felt in a very long time. A lot of things had changed, drastically, in her life; but she was still in love with Asami Sato. Korra didn't know where this would take the two of them, just as she didn't know where the new spiritual age would take the world, but she did know that she had made the right decision. It wasn't going to be simple, and it wasn't' going to be easy, but Avatar Korra had always preferred obstacles which she could meet head on.

 _-End-_

* * *

 _Thanks for keeping up with the story and giving me a chance to make up for the end of Book I. A Second Glance will continue with Book III~_

s/11975904/1/A-Second-Glance-Book-III 


End file.
